Citadel-Till Kingdom Come
by Akaia389
Summary: When the world crumbles around them, team CTDK is sent in to help investigate. But loyalties will be questioned when things go dark. When an ancient faction awaken, CTDK and the teams of the Remanent Frontier Patrols is forced to take sides. Will they fall to the plans? Or will they pull through? Beware, for no action is without consequences.(Follows Vol 3) Feedback appreciated!
1. 1- Glad To Be Back (Home)

**Hello there, this is my first time writing so I may be a bit... meh.**

 **But enjoy- all created misc teams and the Remnant Frontier Patrol teams belong to me.**

 **All credit goes to RT**

 ***Due to some complications I removed the summary and team list***

* * *

The northern part of Atlas was colder than anyone can imagine. Snow fell by the meter within minutes, the wind bites at you like a invisible monster. If you are not fast enough to seek shelter when the last ray of the sun sets, you will be dead before dawn rises. If you do survive the night, you may not make it past the arctic grimm that calls the arctic tundra their home.

That is if you are only human or faunus.

If you are a hunter or hunter-in-training, faunus or not, you have a greater chance of making through a night here than regulars.

CTDK has a reputation of being the guardian of the borders- as that is where they are mostly deployed be it Forever Falls, the impossible frozen tundras, subterranean lands- anywhere normal militia or teams would shrink away when it came to divided lands. Know for their all-round statused team, they can quickly divide and conquer or stay close and provide cover as needed. If they were not busy with their missions or classes, the team of four can be found in the countryside, helping faunus settlements and visiting orphanages. Of course adding taking down criminals or ambushes.

* * *

Except now, they have two tasks at hand instead of one. A Tunneler grimm was roused by the grimm activity on the surface and is already coming to life in the valley a mile away of the camp. Tunneler grimms are like giant armored centipedes that can bit a man in two with it's jaws. They have sharper vision than most grimm, making it a challenge to even wise hunters, let alone a team of in-trainings.

"Well this is just perfect," Cindy groaned as she and her team made it up to the ridge of the mountain that hid the valley and the tossed snow of the Tunneler below them. Diane already ahead by minutes to do her formal scouting and report. She looked down to see the zig zags of overturned snow and dirt them before the rest of her team caught up, a bit breathless. "I hope we get a week off after this."

Kelly and Jay were next to climb over the ridge, looking down at where Cindy was pointing at, their attention to the rumbling ground and exploding snow. Diane already neatly hidden behind boulders on the higher outcropping, staring down at the valley with her sharp eyes. The scientist outpost was just a bit further from the said grimm.

"It's popping out at two minute intervals," Cindy turned her attention to Diane's voice as the hooded girl removed Falling Dusk from her lower back harness. "Just give me the signal to fire."

The green-eyed leader watched as the gladius shifted into its signature burst fire, long barrel rifle. The marksman of the group inserted a special ammunition into her rifle and pulled the lever back, her eyes trained to the moving grimm below unassisted by a telescope.

"Fire as you wish when the time's right," Cindy gives her partner the shoulder pat of approval. "We'll go on your first fire."

Cindy paused for a moment before turning to Kelly and give a small nod as if the tall girl understood her- which they did. Years of partnership made subtle signals seem more than a motion- but like a telepathic order. Kelly walked to the rock platform not too far from them, their gauntlet, Ripple Corruption began shifting into it's autogun form, using protruding rock as the stand, they inserted a rather large drum magazine before pulling the safety off.

"Ready for fire." The girl says through her mask.

Cindy nods to Jay, who unsheathes Falling Sky, the blade splitting down the middle and folds to one side as the gun muzzle extends outward, covering her weapon in electricity. Cindy pulls Mourning Dawn from her back, already in its shotgun from. She pulls her scarf over her nose before looking at Diane for the signal.

Diane moves her rifle for a minute or two until lifting a finger and pulled the trigger. Cindy and Jay immediately sprung off the cliff at the short signal. The gun gives a thundering crack as two bullets exploded from the muzzle, slicing the air like a blade as it exploded against the thick hide of the grimm. Kelly's earth-rocking cannon fire explodes against the giant creature, uprooting it from the ground, onto solid earth. Tunnelers cannot dig solid, frozen soil, unless given time.

And time is not what is has.

"Jay, take left!" CIndy shouted as she fired a slug at the insect grimm, the impact creating craters the size of dinner plates on the armor. The girl gave a nod before sliding past the multiple spasming legs and disappearing into the snow cloud.

Cindy jumped from lunge of the said worm, the mandibles snapping at where she was seconds ago. Pushing herself off the head of the massive grimm as it jerked back, screeching like a nevermore as electricity coursed throughout it's body, nearly striking her as well. She can see Jay with her gunblade stabbed deep in the chinks of the plates on its back as she flipped over. Switching her shotgun from "Semi-auto" to "Full-auto" she twisted around to empty her magazine along its back.

"Heads up!" Cindy and Jay looked up to see the Kelly and Diane above them, Kelly's fist cocked way back. Diane fired two shots before her falling behind the grimm, waiting. That was their cue as Kelly drops down.

She sees a blur before a massive explosion of energy sends the Tunneler and them both reeling back into the snow. The massive grimm is laying in a moderate sized crater, the snow around it melted and ground charred. Cindy is always fascinated with her teammates semblances, each one never failing to amuse her in combat or training. Especially Kelly, a reptilian faunas whose semblance is still unknown at this point, but they can spit out poisonous fires and their bite is venomous as well- which is awesome.

As the dust cleared, she can see Kelly standing on the ridge, steam steadily escaping the rebreather as Ripple Corruptions glowed slowly subsided as her eyes returned to a soft silver-gold glow. She can tell the taller girl's chest is puffed out proudly and a smirk of triumph is under the mask as the grimm began dissolving into black whisps.

"Kelly, wipe that grin off your face this instant." Cindy ordered, hands on hips and barely suppressing a laugh. She can see a slight blush on Jay's face.

"Yes, mam." Kelly jumped down the creator to meet with the rest of their team. The girl landed with a heavy thud in front of her.

* * *

Cindy cleared her throat before taking a glance at the outpost in the distance, searchlights swinging wildly as a sea of moving black can be seen a bit further away. She turned back to her team and pulls them together.

"Alright, Kelly and I will go inside and evac the scientists as well as call a ship," She says slowly, motioning to Kelly on her side. "Jay and Diane, mount yourself on the towers, give us five and we regroup in the main building…"

Cindy pointed to the tallest building that looked like an airport control tower.

"There, that's where we regroup." She stood up and brushed off her pants. "Clear?"

The three heads nodded.

"Let's get the show on the road."

The outpost is solid concrete and steel, the walls possibly twenty feet tall of solid steel and dust laced concrete. Two watchtowers sat behind the walls on either side, empty except the searchlights. There were numerous scoring on the thick walls as well as parts of the automated soldiers strewn apart.

They scaled the steel walls with ease, making it over on a few seconds. Diane and Jay already moved into position, the two watchtowers on the side claimed by them as they set up their weapons as quick as they can climb.

The camp was silent for the most part, every dweller possibly in the main building by now. There is the distant rumbling of the grimm migration, but nothing matched the silence of the outpost has to offer.

It was too silent for their liking.

Kelly punched the steel double doors out of its hinges with one hit, their gauntlet still glowing, providing some light for the dim interiors. There is no time to explore and take in surroundings as the timer is counting until the grimms arrive. In the back of the spacious room, there were the group of scientists and automated guards. And moments later, there were several guns pressed to their faces, not surprisingly.

"We're sent by Beacon to extract you guys from here." Kelly said in a calm voice, the glowing of her gauntlet and eyes ceased. "We ran into a slight delay, sorry about that."

"That's alright, now since you guys are here," One of the people in the white lab coat said, while another motioned the robots to lower the guns. "Is is safe to go out?"

"We have our other two teammates in the sentry towers to keep watch for now," Cindy assured them as she takes out her scroll and tapped away, eyes flickering on multiple open windows. "ETA fifteen minutes."

Kelly's scroll rang on her hip, the girl immediately picking it up, the caller none other than Diane.

"Guys, we have a slight issue!" Diane shouted across the line, there is gunfire in the background and some roaring. "Grimms diverting path. We have the White Fang coming. They 'have several bullheads with 'em!"

Cindy paled with the scientist, thinking a way out. She walked over and snatched the scroll out of Kelly's armored hand. There are too many risks to take to ensure their safety.

"Pull back to us, Kelly and Diane go up to the control tower and set up," Cindy ordered. "Jay, the robots and I will cover ground level."

CIndy tosses the scroll back to Kelly, who nods before running up the staircase. Her attention then turns back to the scientists and the group of eight or so robots.

"Scientists, I need you and three Atlesian Knights take cover in a room, the rest will hold here," She instructs before pulling out her scroll and dial up a contact.

"Headmaster, we may need a backup team," She speaks urgently, watching as DIane and Jay blunder through, pulling the security doors down behind them to cover the ones Kelly knocked down earlier. "Can you get in contact with VRDN?"

Cindy and her small group barricaded the front of the room, their guns ready to take down whoever burst through the doors. The silence is agonizing, knowing that any second can change the situation- they can be overrun or they can be killed at a moment. Jay seemed fidgety, shifting constantly from her kneeling position to a squat to comfort herself and take a comfortable firing position or spot. The tension is high in the room, the two feels like the room is closing on them soon. They've been in situations like this before, and made it out without fatal injuries, but heck, this is different- they have to ensure safety of a group and expect to make it out alive.

The thundering crack of Diane's rifle and the earth-shattering rounds from Kelly's arm gun is the alarm they needed as the steel backup doors began denting from repeated blows. THe sound of explosions served as a countdown until the gate began buckling.

"Get ready." Cindy looked over to Jay as she raised her gunblade to her face, ready to aim at the dents.

The gates broke in with a loud bang, the three marked Atlesian Paladin barged right in with several White Fang members. The ships can be seen being taken down outside by a barrage of larger rounds.

Cindy switched the safety off her shotgun and pulled the trigger, the force of her special rounds sent several White Fangs into one another. With the cover of the group of Atlesian Knights, she effectively decapitated her opponent while cutting another one down. She sidestepped a downward smash of a metal fist and jumped up onto it's back, stabbing Mourning Dawn into the thick metal for balance and pulled the trigger, the force sending her backward into a pillar as she possibly struck the fuel canister of the Paladin. A rookie mistake. Her vision blurred the moment she hit the pillar, her head throbbed and her vision swam as if she just got out of the centrifuge.

* * *

Jay flipped over several foot soldiers as if she were dancing on stage, Falling Sky accurately striking vital points to incapacitate them. Her gunblade dug into the back of a soldier before lifting her over her head and tossing the masked villain into one another. She ducked a sword swipe and fired a electric charged round at the attacker, launching him into a Paladin who shared their scream as the electric current affected them both. She looked in time to see Cindy being launched into a pillar, flinching, she turned the revolver to the red canister and fired into the neverending charge of White Fang foot soldiers. The explosion of fire ignited the gas canisters beside it, creating a wall of fire as she takes the precious time to get her dazed leader from the fray and behind cover.

Not to mention the moment Kelly and Diane jumping off the six story stairs meant they were utterly screwed.

Cindy's vision cleared the moment Kelly and Diane landed on the concrete floor, their clothing a bit burnt and torn, meaning they lost the covering fire. Kelly's cannon is firing into the wave, creating holes in the ground to slow the progressive soldiers. Diane proving suppressing fire from her perch in the I-beams above. Jay is covering their retreat behind cover, dragging her behind a concrete.

The final Atlesian Paladin broke through, clashing arms (literally) with Kelly, a challenge of machine to man strength. Kelly pulled her dust revolver from their thigh holster and fired a round at the chest cavity of the Paladin, staggering the machine back enough for them to send a devastating punch to the damaged area, instantly causing the dreadnought to explode into smithereens. Cindy always wondered who can actually match her strength beside artificial muscle. That is until a rather missle sized round knocked Kelly and Diane into the wall behind them with a impressive dent.

Cindy was about to shout something when a row of spiked ice erupted from the ground and a pillar of fire rose from the ground, scorching the unfortunate in its path.

"Sorry we're a bit late, Cindy," A singsong voice piped from behind them. "We got caught in a storm."

"Said storm was Vik causing a tornado in a blizzard." Said a rather muscular viking-themed male, no doubt the leader of the team. He walked behind the smaller double-headed battle axe wielding girl.

"Don't worry about it, Gordon," CIndy rubbed the back of her bruised head, stinging from where she slammed into the steel pillar head-first. "You can clear the rest out to make a landing for the bullhead."

The two nodded at her before motioning to the rest of their team. The viking themed team let out a loud battle cry before charging head-first into the fray, dust infused weapons swinging left and right, laughing at the carnage they are causing. Heck, Tina decided to let loose all the rounds in her multi-launch missile launcher, causing the entire area to be blinded by snow- literally.

* * *

The whole clearing of the landing area took less than an hour to complete with the help of the berserker team and them butchering of everything in their way and shrugging off bullet wounds and gashes as if they are papercuts. Cindy huffed as she leaned back on a broken cement slab, catching her breath like the rest of her team, who are nursing bullet wounds and removing shrapnel from their body.

Taking in her teammates injuries and her own, nothing serious and they certainly have seen worse. Kelly is lounging in the sun due to her being a reptile faunus, her left arm covered in bandages from blocking a sneaky Paladin's fist with her unarmored arm. Jay looks a bit better, just multiple cuts along her arms and legs, though some white can be seen under the cuts in her clothes. Diane is busy removing shrapnel from her body with the help of Tina, who accidentally blasted her down from her perch in the tiny girls missile rampage.

Cindy cracked her back and neck, sighing at the relieved pressure- and the soreness that will follow from hitting a pillar after shooting a fuel tank of a Paladin. Not to mention the headache that will persist for a while.

"Hey, Cindy!" Her partner called out to her from the bullhead, breaking the leader from her daydream. "Come on, we're heading back."


	2. 2- In Time (To Relax)

By the time they arrived back in Vale, the sunset already greeted them like a warm blanket. Never were they all so happy to be home after two weeks of cold, gray land.

The moment they landed, they were greeted by the festival of the tournament event. Their eyes lit immediately as they stepped off the ramp and onto solid ground after hours of travel back to Beacon.

"Check it out," Jay has stars in her eyes. "We're in time for the tournament!"

Diane's attention turned from her partner to the excited girl and the sight of the giant floating Amity Colosseum of the Vytal Tournament. She too is impressed at how it is, it never ceased to amaze her of how the tournament always appear. Students of all over Remnant are gathered for this biyearly event to test their mettle against other teams and schools. And Vale is lucky to hold this spectacular event.

Diane sighed in content, reminiscing of their first tournament against a Haven team two years ago. The match was close, both she and Kelly were knocked out of commission by an exploding warhammer. Cindy put up a good fight against the staff wielding boy, but they both somehow knocked each other out of the match, leaving Jay to fight against three members. They thought that the team was done for until-

Hello, earth to Diane," Diane blinked out of her thoughts by Cindy's gloved hand in her face. "I know you're thinking of the past. Come on, let's go grab something to eat."

"I hope they know how to make a bosna." Cindy gave another yawn, sauntering to a nearby sandwich shop that's opened specifically for the festival.

* * *

They sat around a crackling campfire, finally getting to relax after a week journey in the frozen north. And it has been a week with just eating field rations of freeze dried or canned food packages and powered coffee and milk. These were nothing new to them since they are often deployed into hostile areas pretty frequently, as only six of these special teams are active at a time until they graduate. Both team CTDK and VRDN are from Beacon.

"It feels like ages since we've eaten real food." Jay practically inhaled her double stacked sandwich and her plate of fries. A unladylike burp came from her moments later. "Even though it's only been a week.

"I'll say, I wish the field rations has a bit more diversity than just canned burgers and chicken fried noodles," Cindy agreed with a full mouth, wiping her mouth with a wrinkled napkin. "At least it won't be for a while until we get to drink powdered coffee."

"I'm not looking forward to that anytime soon," Diane punched her partner's shoulder lightly, still a bit tired from staying up all the way back. "Besides, who knows when we get called back out again."

"Who knows, could be weeks or days," Kelly's voice made them look at the girl, playing with her rebreather, gently twirling it around her finger. The right side of her lower face is jaggedly cut and scarred heavily from a ursa's claws when she pushed Diane out of the way a year and half ago. She still felt a bit guilty for causing her friend's disfiguration, and made the mask to make up for it.

"Well," The girl gave a heavy sigh, leaning back on the log and placed the mask next to her. "Lets push the thoughts aside and enjoy the present."

Diane had to agree with that, the grimm activity has been increasing steadily for unknown reasons, and the dangerous grimms are surfacing once again and it's taking a toll on them and VRDN both. She always wondered what is causing the increase and why is the numbers encountered more aggressive than the last.

"Yeah, let's." Diane muttered, looking down at the fire, hoping that the flickering warmth can calm her nerves.

* * *

"... Very well, the success and the odd factor of your mission is certainly interesting." The headmaster placed the report folder down after minutes of silence, each of them standing tall to attention for the past half hour. "A grimm migration at this time is very unlikely, not to mention the Tunneler appearing randomly from it. I will message Professor Port about his knowledge on that later."

"Thank you sir," Cindy, gives him a short bow. "Is there anything else you wanted to hear included or not on the report?"

"Not at the moment," Opzin leaned back in his chair, taking a sip from his signature mug. "I will look into the odd discoveries of a 'hollow mountain' in the Northern Shelf you've discovered."

He rose from the chair and walked in front of them.

"Nevertheless, you all are entitled to have the next few weeks off to recover if duty allows," He gestured them to the open door of the tower balcony. "And enjoy the Vytal Tournament because I applied you all into it since you seemed eager to fight something non-grimm for once."

None of them could hide a grin on their face that night.

* * *

The morning is a tad strange to Diane as she is used to the nightly rustling of bushes of crunching of snow, but the stillness of the dorms are welcoming. The soft snoring from the room signaled the exhausted members. However, Diane is always the early bird.

Throwing the covers off herself, Diane began her day, taking a shower before changing into her combat wear for the day. By the time she is done, Cindy is awake with a soft yawn, waving at her with sleepy eyes. Then came a cross of a growl and yawn from Kelly as she pushed herself off the bed and threw her pillow at Jay to wake the last member up.

"About time you guys got up," she chided, putting on her bracer and dusted off her clothing. "We have a whole day to half about."

Kelly gave a sleepy 'good morning' rumble in her throat before walking into the bathroom for a shower.

Diane took her time with the small kitchen with Cindy, making their breakfast of whatever they can find in the cupboards, which is waffle mix. She and Cindy decided that they will need to restock the fridge and cupboards later today before the store closes.

By the time they finish, Kelly is lounging in her daybed, sprawled like a lizard basking in the early sun like any other reptile would. Diane smiled a little and sat down on her teammates particularly hard bed and leaned back against her rough side. The reptile faunus let out a soft rumble from her throat at the sudden extra heat source. Jay happened to walk by and set down a warm paper plate of waffles on her head, making the girl's eyes snap open suddenly of disapproval and confusion as the dilated eyes glared at her partner while the rest giggled at the younger girl's antics.

"Hey, it's breakfast." Diane patted her head, eliciting an annoyed growl.

* * *

It took half an hour for them all to get ready for the day. The team walked out to the festival, already greeted by the sights of students and civilians walking about, chattering excitedly. Jay jumping about, Kelly enjoying the sunlight, Cindy keeping cool about the morning cold and she herself containing the child in her around the grand event. From their scroll, they watched the previous event from inside the floating colosseum, watching in interest of the battling teams. Each battle shows promising future hunters and huntresses despite their losses or victories. There is that one team that caught their attention despite all the shown previous battles.

"Team RWBY huh?" Diane arched an eyebrow, curiosity piped. "The little red riding hood, she's Summer's kid if I remember correctly."

"By the look of the petals flying everywhere," Kelly took notice, she always picks out minor details. "Yeah, she is alright."

They watched the whole match of RWBY v. ABRN, on the edge of their seats from the excitement built up from watching the match. Throughout the whole match, only one was knocked out before the rest were KO'd by the blonde boxer of RWBY.

"I have to admit," Jay threw her hands in the air. "They handled better than we did in the guys got knocked out towards the end."

They eventually spent the rest of the day walking around the festival underneath the dome, enjoying the first official day off. Some upperclassmen teams recognized and greeted them on their return to land, with some jokes and tales, they were glad CTDK is in one piece still. They all part ways, leaving the border patrol team to walk around the area once again, chattering away. They passed by a group of students that just returned from the daily battles.

"Hey, isn't that the team we saw earlier in the day?" Jay pointed out, making them all turn to see the lively team disembark the bullhead, chattering away from watching their friend fight.

"Yep, red, white, black and yellow," Cindy let a smile fall on her face. "Shall we go greet them?"

"I'm interested in having a nice chat with the team in person, not from scrolls and news." Diane added on, already walking towards the distracted team.

"Did you see the way Nora knocked them all out with one strike?" The energetic red cloaked girl literally floated around her team, chattering away.

"Yes we did Ruby," The tall, blonde boisterous girl is the only one who replied to Ruby in her excited chittering. "I have to admit, JPNR really outdid themselves this round."

"I know ri-" The girl literally walked into Cindy, who stood straight and rigid without flinching. The girl quickly stepped back, rest of her team looking at them. "Oh, sorry I didn't see…"

"Oh it's alright," Cindy patted the girl's shoulder with a gloved hand. "I want to congratulate you guys on your victory, we watched on our mission."

"Oh my gosh it's team CTDK." The girl is practically vibrating in place. Diane wondered if it's normal for people to do that, even Jay don't do that and she's the hyper one of the lot.

"Team who?" The white-haired girl asked, confusion crossing her face. The blonde girl gave her pat on the shoulder. "You've heard of this team before, Yang?"

"CTDK, one of the two Remnant Frontier Guards from Beacon, famous for keeping the borders controlled and safe," Yang nudged her before walking up to Ruby. "Hey Rubes, go ask for their autographs."

"Actually, why don't we go out for dinner later, and tell stories around the campfire ol' fashioned ways instead?" Diane offered, giving swarm smile at them. "It's on us."

"Are you sure?" The girl with a black bow on her head asked Cindy.

"Yeah we can pay for it Blake," Kelly spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning on one leg. "Besides, we have a lot to catch up."

"Besides, if you want we can train you guys for the doubles," Diane offered.

Before all that, Cindy received a message to meet at the tower for a short gathering.

"What does it say?" Diane asked her partner and leader. She tried to peer over the taller girl's broad shoulder, but CIndy shielded the information from her.

"Don't know- but it says urgently," Cindy passed the scroll to her to see.

 _Cindy of CTDK,_

 _I must inform you that there is a urgent netting you must attend with your team at the tower tomorrow night at 7 PM. I will give debriefing there. Notify your team. This is to all Remnant Frontier Guard Teams from all schools._

 _Headmaster Opzin._

Diane nodded at the message before handing it to Kelly who then handed it to Jay seconds later.

"Let's not keep him waiting." Cindy brushed her shorts before turning in the direction of the tower. "Since they're calling _all_ Remnant Frontier Patrols."

* * *

That night, deep in a secluded area of Forever Falls, and with Opzins approval of course, a bonfire is set up on the tallest peaks. The view is astounding, overlooking the entire forest of red, the leaves rippling like waves at the gently breeze. They with RWBY practically hiked there on foot, fast and easy without Grimm resistance.

"We're here." Diane announced, dropping the cooler next to the prepared wood stack. "Does anyone have a lighter?"

"I got it," Yang bounced next to her, grinning. "Someone punch me!"

Ruby, Weiss and Blake backed up considerably behind a rock. She, Cindy and Jay immediately caught onto what she meant and joined the younger behind the rock.

"One punch coming up," Kelly smiled under her mask. Her fist is immediately covered by her gauntlet as she cocked her arm back. Her eyes and arm began glowing as she launched it forward towards Yangs face.

No one knew what happened first- the giant explosion from Corruption Lament or Yang's fire. Let's just leave it at the fact a bonfire manage to start instantly from that. They ended up bringing out camping food they bing on their missions in the tropical areas to roast. Marshmallows, sausages, canned food that is a bit expensive which they bought themselves.

They spoke tales of their adventures in the areas that's deemed hostile and dangerous, watching the girls interested faces light up.

"... And then Jay swooped down from the tree, and Kelly launched her off with a punch at the Garugtan. She hit it so hard the giant gorilla made a new cave which we used as shelter later on," Diane finished her tale, making hand movements to exaggerate her story. "Abiet a broken arm and Kelly having a crooked nose from firing off her, they laughed it off."

"It was by far our favorite battle in the woodlands by far." Jay added, hugging Falling Sky close to her.

"But what about your most recent mission?" Weiss asked Cindy, who stayed quiet the whole time. "What is that about?"

Diane sat back on her hands, and sighed.

"Well, we were called to Atlas's northern province to a research facility that is caught in a Grimm migration. Mind you it is dead winter over there and blizzards happen every few hours," She licked her chapped lips. "We made a discovery of a hollow mountain, something odd in that area. There were strange moving shadows inside- something new. We left it alone and continued. We did not anticipate a Tunneler Grimm to even be there, but it did."

The four girls were listening intently, entranced by Cindy's tale.

"The Tunneler put up a good fight, throwing me back while on its back hundred legs, Diane and Kelly guns are like a thunder storm as they tried to keep it from burrowing under us. And then Jay paralyzed it enough for Kelly to smash it to the ground- so powerful the next fifty yards around it became a crater." Cindy leaned to the light of the fire. "Victory in hand we then ran to the steel walls of the faculty, scaling them like those wall climbing machines. Then…"

"Then what?" Ruby asked, wide eyed at her story.

"The Grimm diverted their path, which never happens- instead we were met with White Fangs, thanks to Kelly and Jay's eyes- we got into position to defend the scientists with a handful of Atlesian Knights. We held our ground as Kelly an Jay shot planes out of the sky, but when the gates fell, we were met with the Paladins and several foot soldiers. We were overrun, I took out a Paladin but bursted the fuel tank- knocking me out into a beam. Jay pulled me to safety as Kelly and Jay joined us."

"VRDN arrived in time when Kelly was injured by another Paladin.." Cindy chuckled at he memory of the berserk team. "They are real warriors, jumping onto bullheads and taking them down or fighting machines head on without fear..."


	3. 3- The Clearing

CTDK and VRDN walked to the office formation, expecting four other teams from the other areas to join them in the meeting place. The Viking team is quieter than usual, understanding the severity of the impending mission.

* * *

Everyone knows if all six Patrols are en massed in a "war room" the situation is usually serious.

"Do you know what's go'n on?" Jakob Volduner, the fearless leader of VRDN asked Cindy.

"I only know as much as you do, Jakob." Cindy shrugged as they approached the large brass doors.

* * *

Inside were the other teams, each speaking among another. Everyone in the Patrols knows one another, due to the organization being quite small. They did not talk loud, only enough to keep voices from echoing in the large steel war room. VRDN immediately went off to chat with team MLCT of Haven, spitting out old jokes and greetings with the other heavy weaponed team. Needless to say, VRDN, MLCT and HLTP are the heavy muscle of the six.

CTDK mingled in with the other groups, catching up on the latest news and so on.

"Nice to see you Eric," Kelly bumped knuckles with Eric Valence of SLTE from Vacuo. The two of them are the heavy range and close combaters of CTDK and SLTE. "Been a long time since we've met."

"Long it has been, little dragon." Eric patted her shoulder. "How's the missions?"

While everyone is chattering away, curious of the urgent meeting- the brass bobble doors opened, Headmaster Ozpin, General Ironwood, and Glynda Goodwitch strolled in.

"Attention!" Emily Echo, leader of EBNY shouted.

All six teams stood in formation, legs shoulder width apart, back straight with hands clasped behind their backs and chins up.

"VRDN of Vale, in duty." Jakob spoke loudly, he and his team saluting quickly.

"CTDK of Vale, in duty." Cindy and her team crossed their right arm across their chest.

"SLTE of Vacuo, reporting." Saurman and his team did a military salute.

"EBNY of Vacuo, reporting." Emily and her team replicated the military salute.

"MLCT of Mistral, ready." Mike and his team raised their left arm at the elbow before dropping to their side.

"HLTP of Mistral, ready." Hanna and her team mirrored their partner team, but with the opposite arm.

General Ironwood raises his hand, the teams loosened their stances a little. The four turned to walk into another room with a large holographic display table inside. Without saying anything, the leaders of the six respective teams walked in after them, their team members relaxed from their stances as the double doors closed behind them.

* * *

The members of the meeting gathered around the holographic display, waiting for the four to speak. Headmaster Ozpin cleared his throat, the leaders of the six teams stood attention again, watching as he placed his scroll onto the table, a video or rather a documentary flashed to life for them all to see.

"This was taken weeks ago by team RWBY during a Mountain Glenn mission." He began. "Originally the mission is supposed to be for grimm purposes, but White Fang presence was noted from the discovery by Ruby Rose when she was doing a night walk."

The video changed to show an underground rail system that was captured by the scroll. It showed, several White Fang members walking around, hauling machinery, dust crates and what seem to be loading into a train.

"Roman Torchwick was discovered along with Atlesian Paladins and a rigged train that led into the city," Ozpin continued, signaling Goodwitch to pull up the individual fighting video feeds. "During their encounter, RWBY was aboard that train with Professor Oobleck to hold some of the White Fang back."

The video split into four sections, displaying each individual battles on the screens. The leaders took mental note on the opponents and fighting styles.

"From what Qrow has gathered from his work in the field, the enemy is among the tournament." General Ironwood announced to them. Murmurs broke out among them for a few seconds before subsiding again.

The rest of the meeting was pouring over video feeds and talking amongst themselves on the situation. The information and video feeds were sent to the awaiting team members outside.

"Alright, so what's the task at hand?" Emily asked as they all finished the review.

Headmaster Ozpin pulled up a map of the entire area. He nodded to Goodwitch who cleared her throat.

"At this point, we the tracker teams VRDN and MLCT to check Mountian Glenn to anything left behind. SLTE and HLTP will do street patrol for anything suspicious. CTDK and EBNY will take the tunnels and underground city." She passed out the files to the teams to read over. "A copy has been sent to your teams."

They scanned through the given materials- maps of all kinds, a compass, black light scanners, four ear phones and dust bottles.

"Failure is not an option, gather what you can," General Ironwood spoke to them. "This is the largest mission you all will undergo."

"Dismissed."

* * *

The double doors opened, the leaders regrouping with their partner teams and teammates, reviewing all the materials and tasks.

"Okay, we have to go investigate a old tunnel that is now infested with grimm," Cindy read her scroll carefully. "That is so safe."

"Hardly, this is something I normally would not mind at all," Emily scoffed, rereading the file again as her team checked their ammo supply for the long run. "But this is something we never done before."

"I'll agree with that, Emily." Jay rotated the barrel of Falling Sky before sheathing it on her lower back.

The teams chatted among one another again, but their conversation grim like their mission itself. It is no longer keeping the borders safe and the civilians safer- it is now the world's weight upon their shoulders as they have to go within the safe kingdom of Vale and scour within before the clock reaches zero.

They cannot fail, as failing would mean the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Including theirs.

The clacking of the heavy boots and cane resonated as they all turned to the three older members. Their faces grim as well, knowing the burden is placed upon these twenty four young men and women. They all understood the risks of being a part of this special services, always going where no one dare go for feats, never looking to tomorrow knowing they may not return from the missions.

"Students of the Remnant Frontier Patrol," Headmaster Ozpin started. "We know this is a mission that is the first you've encountered in your time. We know you all understand the risk of carrying the burden of being the guardian of the people, knowing when to look to a new day, but never anticipate it to come back. You've seen things no one else have, and accomplished what is difficult."

"We wish you all the hope and luck for this mission as the world sees you as their guardian now. Failure is not an option as lives will be lost, possibly yours," He continued. "You are used to fighting Grimm, White Fang, other groups. But now you will have to fight the people you all protected once, it will not be easy, but this is what a Hunter or Huntress will go through."

The air felt heavy as the six teams stood still, eyes down casted as they absorbed the words.

Never in their life they anticipated that they will encounter this.

"Starting tomorrow, your task will begin."

* * *

All six teams sat in a private room of Junior's club. Drinks of various kinds scattered on the large table. They all decided to spend their days enjoying a bit before starting the mission. Talking about old times, speaking tales of their adventures, boasting of their team feats and so on. Just something to remember them all by.

VRDN and MLCT downing their tankards of sweet red sap mead, laughing at memories and stories. The two teams seemingly can never get drunk or tipsy from drinking large amounts of any kind of drinks.

EBNY and HLTP gathered around the table, Emily and Hanna arm wrestling, their teams cheering their respective leader on. Besides them were bottles of Rakk, juniper flavored light beer. Even Emily's small white Nevermore, Tryggr squawked for his master to win.

CTDK and SLTE engaged in a light wrestling match between Kelly and Leona, both the largest of the team. The two testing skill on the wrestling mat on the floor, with Kelling having Leona in a tight armbar.

Their laughs echoes deep into the night as they gathered around to drink the last time. Celebrating with a special drink they all favor and know of- Mistral's coconut palm ale or Grimm Blood as they call it. Every time they all meet up, they usually go to a fancy lounge and order this drink if served and catch up on what's been happening.

But tonight, they would drink for what may be the final time. The wood carved steins slid across the table to each person, each filled to the brim with a opaque reddish drink topped with frothy red foam, courtesy of the red sap added into the drink. Coconut palm ale is not strong nor weak, but pleasant after a long day. It held a tropical taste with the texture of evaporated milk that's slightly thicker.

They all stood up, steins raised as Jakob cleared his throat. He has always been the moral and motivator of all of them.

"Through all our hardships and rocky start, we are now a family, we grieve together, laugh together, hell, we would take a bullet for each other. And swearing upon the moon, if we fall, we will meet each other on the other side."His words always brought the spirits of everyone up, filling them with the excitement of the fight. " Brothers and sisters, tomorrow is a new deal which no one has ever done before. The road will be hard, spirits will be broken and people we have protected will be killed be it us or not. Either way we stand tall and we will stand together even when the sky rains blood and bullets on us. We are a part of humanity's shield."

"To tomorrow, and whatever is going on the day after." He let out a hearty laugh raising the stein high.

"To tomorrow." The rest mirrored him before downing the entire mug in a few gulps and slamming onto the table top with a loud bang.


	4. 4- What The Heck Just Happened?

**This is by far the most I've ever written.**

 **Discalmer: I only own the teams presented in this**

 **WARNING: Body Horror (mentioned) / Gore/ Blood**

* * *

The sun shined it's first rays, turning the dark sky a hue of dark orange against blue. Not one soul stirred from their slumber except the engines of the bullheads and the six teams as they stirred from their slumber, instantly on their feet without a startup timer. The air held a cold nip, cold enough for fog to escape their noses when they exhaled.

They all gathered in the landing where the three bullheads await them. Each with a sling bag full of bedding, bandages, repair kits and ammunition if they use ranged weapons. On their waist were pouches filled with dust cartiges and other essentials. Their lower back held two sheathed daggers.

Though certain teams or individuals carried slightly different accessories with them.

Meanwhile Kelly, Penelope and Leona are faunus' giving them a natural advantage in some cases.

Kelly being a komodo dragon faunus. Lumbering and heavy with a forked tongue, poisonous bite allows her to detect her targets and is a poison outlet for her team or others.

Penelope is a gazelle faunus. Quick on her feet with a pair of sharp horns on her head to match her equally painful headbutts, not to mention a really high jumper. She can easily reach higher points where Leona can't.

Leona is a clouded leopard faunus. As small as she may be she is fast with her long fangs and retractable claws she like any other cat faunus have amazing night vision. She can forgo specialized binoculars and getting to a higher point by climbing to gain a stealthy kill.

* * *

VRDN jumped down first with MLCT, fanning out to go to their respective areas deep inside the surrounding forest setting up a signal barrier for SLTE and HLTP to track later on. SLTE and HLTP landed not long after. Erica and Saruman begins setting up their combat and shield drones for their patrols. Penelope already on top of the tallest building, setting up a forward base with satellite dishes and other devices lent by the Atlesian military.

Finally CTDK and EBNY landed near the hole in the ground. Emily made a hand gesture to Tryygr. With a caw, the small white nevermore dove into the crater. Nicole and Jay jumped down first, making a rope system for the others to follow. Although Kelly just jumped straight down instead of using the rope like the others.

* * *

The tunnels were dark as hell, it reeked of decay and no one can see three feet in front of them. Aside from rubble from the fight weeks ago, some of the wooden pillars are close to collapsing from the chunks of missing ceiling or remains of Paladins being embedded in the wall.

"Ugh it reeks of death in here," Brenda nearly gagged into her scarf at the putrid stench. A groan of agreement came from Diane. Then came the gagging noises from Nicole.

"You don't say." Nicole wiped her mouth and placed her mask over her nose.

"It's not that bad." Kelly shrugged, her mask hanging around her neck. She seemed the most utterly relaxed- next to Tryygr who is busy feasting on the decaying corpses. "He likes it too."

Her forked tongue flickering now and then into the air as they walked into the dark tunnels.

"I highly doubt anyone can be so passionate about this as you, Kelly. But probably since you " Jay elbowed her partner. The faunus gave a slight hiss as she leaned down and flicked the tongue in her face.

* * *

It's true, she did enjoy the scent of the rotting bodies, but that's probably the animalistic part of her. She huffed again and tasted the air once again as they walked deeper into the darkness. She can see Brenda kicking some derbies around before kneeling down and gathering scrap pieces or whatever into little bags. Tryygr is once again perched on Emily's forearm, only taking off whenever Emily made a gesture with her hand. He chirped slightly, tapping against Emily's cheek with his beak, making her halt. The rest of her team stopped with her, she drew Deadly Wisp, a hook sword and a scoped crossbow.

"Brenda, Ying go forth and check the junction." She ordered to her two teammates. "Something's there and it's making Tryygr jumpy."

"On it." Brenda unsheathed her ninjato, Reveler, the long blade shifted into a rather long barrelled rifle. Ying removed the ash colored bow Xiao Feng from her back, notching a red colored arrow.

The two ran ahead with Tryygr trailing behind them.

"Diane," Cindy looked at her partner. Without saying more, her partner understood.

Diane nodded, instantly sprinting after them, Bleak Dusk shifting from its gladius form.

Diane watched as Brenda scaled the crumbling stones with ease, finding a perch that's hidden from view behind broken boards. She can see the goggle wearing girl lay down on her stomach, resting her rifle on the boards. Heck, even she can't climb rocks without falling from stepping on the weak ones. Certainly her accuracy can't even match Brenda's or anyone in EBNY and she's the one with the scope in her team.

"Aren't you going to take cover?" Diane heard a soft voice above her.

The hooded Ying is kneeling behind a pile of rocks, her bow notched and ready to fire. How can a lilithe girl like her even score shots between a Ursa's eyes? A shit ton of patience and a semblance that is similar to a cameleon.

She can hear echoing sounds, but she can't tell what it is. For a quick disguise, she joined Ying in her hiding spot. Bleak Dusk is resting on the rocks as she listened intently for the sounds again.

It was garbled and the echoing throughout the junction made it almost indecipherable.

"Sound's like someone's pissed." She whispered, focusing her ears again to the noise, sounding a bit more coherent as the noise if getting slightly clearer, meaning whoever it is is coming their direction. "Something… Fang… Boss ain't happy… something with plan and breaking in."

She turned to the invisible next to her.

"Can you get closer and tap what you hear?" She asked, the air around her rippled at what she presumed as a nod. She turned to the white Nevermore on the rock. "Go too?"

He pecked her rifle once, meaning yes and flew after the dust being kicked up slightly by Ying.

* * *

Kelly tasted the air, the rest of them resting as they wait for a response from the other team members. The air did not change much except an extra scent which made her taste the air again.

"Something up?" Jay asked her. "You're flicking your tongue twice in a row."

"Someone else is here." Third time. "No, a group or so…"

She huffed beginning to walk forward, guided by her tongue. Jay is behind her, keeping close as the other three stayed behind.

"Anything else than a group?" She asked. "Grimm-?"

"Both." Kelly is crouching, her head moving up and down trying to discern more. "Human and metal? Coming towards us."

"Shall we join them?" Cindy asked Emily, the crossbow girl gave a long pause and nodded.

"I think we should.'

* * *

It felt like hours of crouching and taking aim behind a stupid hunk of rock. Her legs fell asleep already from keeping the kneeling position for so long. While she looked content in her position- she's screaming inside of boredom. She heard Barbra scoff at the face she's probably making out of discomfort and pretty any emotion along boredom and annoyance. She can see the white bird on the support beams ahead preening his white feathers.

Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap.

Both Brenda and Diane perked at the noise.

Tap. Long pause. Several taps. Repeat.

"About ten men...Something about a takeover plan...The patrol won't expect it." Diane translated to Brenda who scoffed softly.

"And we're here already." She said as the air shimmered slightly to show the outline of Ying.

"Coming close." She decipher the next set of taps and pauses.

That was their cue to be ready. Brenda loaded a round into her long rifle, pressing her eyes to the iron sight, a grin across her face.

Diane flipped the cover off her scope, turning the safety off and into the signature burst mode.

Tryggr took the cue and flew into the ground, hopping about and walked towards the moving lights.

White Fangs and there is a few Atlesian Paladin and Knights walking behind them.

They all held their breath as the bird distracted them.

"Hey look at this birdie." One of the men picked the bird on his hand, stroking the crest on his head. He gave the hand a light nudge before cawing loudly, enough to echo into the hall.

Thump.

A body fell to the ground with a arrow between his eyes.

Crack!

Diane's rifle lit up the tunnel, her bullets tearing through two of the men in front, leaving the rest startled and blindly firing into the dark. The confused shouting and the whirring of machine parts echoed around the junction. There was a significantly taller female with a rather large chain blade shouting orders.

Brenda's gun pretty much decapitated a member of the White Fang with one shot of the giant bullet.

She can see the flicker of multiple arrows materialising when three of the White Fang members were charging to her position. With deadly accuracy and timing each of the arrows struck deep into their opponents, dropping like flies before her.

"Don't stand around, get them!" The female roared in the back and the Atlesian Knights open fired. "I swear you hunks of metal are useless."

A man was about to shout the order to the rest of them when a crossbow bolt struck him in the throat, his words died in his throat.

Tryygr flew back to Emily's shoulder as she reloaded a fresh bolt into her crossbow, not wasting the moment to stab a sword wielding henchman that managed to sneak up behind her with her long hooked blade.

Diane rolled into the open when the rock she was behind shattered into bits from a Paladin's massive gun. FInding herself surrounded and back against a wall, she took a brief glance to see that the others were just as occupied as she is.

"Ten men my ass, Ying." She grumbled. A sly grin crossed her face.

"Come at me," Placing a new extended clip into Bleak Dawn, she shifted the gears into full auto and pulled the trigger.

The first few shots exploded when it struck flesh, gaining a few mortified looks that made some of her attackers pause. Bleak Dawn shifted into its hybrid form which is similar but two handed version of Jay's gun blade.

The first man was bifurcated at the waist by her claymore. The second managed to get a shot at her, bullet grazing her arm as she deflected it. Bleak Dusk firing a round into his chest when she swung it to slash at the henchmen who jumped onto her back trying to distract her from the fight.

* * *

Cindy embeded her ax into a Knight's head, causing the circuits to explode into sparks before being assaulted by a hail of bullets. Luckily for her aura is strong, her semblance flared to life in a pair of ethereal bone arms. The faint outstretched hands blocked the incoming bullets from Cindy as she quickly grabbed the discarded rifle the Knight was using before having it's head split open.

With her semblance manifesting partially with her will it was enough to make do without expending too much energy at a small group.

Sheathing her shotgun ax on her back, she hefted the gun to her face and is instantly met by a heavy recoil. Not surprised since these are older models of both gun and machine. She missed the first few shots trying to adjust to a foreign weapon, but soon enough began tearing the mindless machines a new one as the bullets shredded metal as easily as flesh.

She began walking steadily forward under the cover of her semblance, weapon and eye darting back and forth.

* * *

Jay feigned terror at the squad she is against. Six heavily armored men compared to the regular henchmen. Her fingers ghosted the trigger on Falling Sky, the gun blade thrumming under her hand.

"Give up princess," the automated voice came from one of them.

She placed a hand on her hip and made a thinking face, tapping her foot and gave a click of her tongue.

"Hmm," Her fingers flipped the switch on her beloved gun sword. "Nope!"

She bursted forward into his face, already in motion for a uppercut. Falling sky's sword edge shifted, the serrated end began roaring like a chainsaw.

Needless to say, he, his aura nor his armor did stand against the now chainsword version of Falling Sky as it sawed through bone and metal. She pulled the trigger, roughly pushing the chain blade out of the bone and metal prison it was sheathed in and setting it into the man behind her. The bullet also took out the man that was on Diane's back.

Like her, Falling Sky thirsted for blood and carnage.

Let's just say she butchered everyone that went against her into pieces.

Grinning like a madman as she rested her weapon on her shoulder, bathed in her enemy's blood.

* * *

Kelly landed on top a knight, crushing it under her weight. She was facing a rather morbid looking Paladin, spikes and blade sticking up everywhere. Heck even its hands were clawed.

She had heard of this monstrosity on one of her solo deployment. Described as a 'murdering twelve foot tall terror' that managed to kill everyone at a forward base for the special operations in the area.

The metal creaked as it cocked its fist back ready to strike her down.

"Finally found you," Kelly cooly said, Ripple Corruption's plates shifting as a bayonet locked under her arm gun.

The blades fist came down faster than most Paladins she fought. She jumped back, the ground exploding in rock and electricity under her. The second fist slammed into her masked face, sending her crashing into a pile of rocks.

"Okay that hurt slightly." The Faunus shook her head, glaring back at the faceless abomination.

She felt the locks on her mask open and gave her jaws a test rotation. A sharp hiss came from her as the metal giant slammed its fist into the ground to taunt her.

Green marks began glowing all over her body, a wrought scale pattern peaking from under her armor plating as her throat let off a soft green hue.

As the machine charged again, she opened her metal clad jaws, great green flames crashed against the metal. The metal began to blacken under the heat of her green fire as the smoke shimmered in the writhing shape of of a three headed dragon, seemingly wrapping around the burning Paladin.

* * *

 **-Several Minutes And A Butt Whooping Later-**

"Okay new plan," She heard Cindy speak next to her, keeping the Paladin at bay by directing her manifested bone arms to fight. "We need to destroy this thing."

Joined by the rest of her team and EBNY under the protection of the aid of a shield drone SLTE probably lent her. The eight huddled under the onslaught of missiles, cannons and other ranged weapons of the surviving henchmen and the large woman in the back still shouting orders.

"We can try apprehended the possible leader for questioning," Ying insisted, checking her quiver quickly and re-slung it across her back.

"And you guys can try to take in the robot in," Nicole suggested, loading fresh clips into her dual bayoneted pistols.

" _Get out from the shield so I can crush your bones and paint my armor red with your blood!_ " The machine cried, striking several more times with it's behemoth claws.

A sharp crack echoed as the clawed hands broke through the shield, slowly tearing the rift apart.

"On second thought... we should go." Emily stood up with Cindy, Tryygr screeched while perched on her shoulder.

Nicole fired a bullet that exploded in a cloud of gray. The machine began wildly swinging around as the gas clouded it's laser sensors.

"Now!" Cindy shouted.

Everyone took off towards their respective targets under the cover of the smokescreen.

"Kelly and Jay take left." Cindy shouted over to the two who instantly diverted from the original formation and deep into the cloud around the thrashing Paladin.

Cindy swung Mourning Dawn in a wide arc, the cold titanium alloy of her ax meeting the twice forged titanium claws with sparks. She felt the weight and power of this Paladin and understands why Kelly was so eager to fight this thing.

This thing is a true war machine that nothing can slate it's bloodlust as the White Fang symbol is painted in dripping red paint.

She can see the other arm raised to crush her, but with all her might against this arm already, she tried to call her semblance to her aid again.

Crack! Crack!

Seeing her distressed partner, Diane fired at the raised arm that threatens to harm her partner and friend. The metal cracked at the explosions from her bullets as it snapped the arm back, the first layer of the armor were shredded off completely.

"Thanks!" Cindy shouted over the din of explosions.

Firing Mourning Dawn caused their weapons to disengage. Cindy jumped into the forearm stabbing her ax into the thicken playing of the Paladin. Her extra bone arms from her semblance held the arms down to keep it from killing them. Diane joined her on the opposite arm, already slashing at the thick plate with her two handed sword. She takes the chance to run up into the arm of the foul machine, ready to sever the connection of the joint when the back carapace bursted open, two more arm revealed itself. Like the first pair they had hand, but each of the fingers held saw-like blades, instead of the manufacture grips for every built model.

"Are you fu-" Cindy's vision shattered as the buzz sawed hand caught her across her chest, sending her into the ground with the heavy thud.

She can hear the muffled shouting when her vision tilted and moved. But by gods did it hurt to move. What happened? She can see Mourning Dawn still stuck in it's forearm like a trophy. The ax part of the shotgun embedded in the thick metal.

She was about to speak when she noticed that one of the sawed hands that hit her had blood spattered across it.

Oh.

Well, shit.

"Cindy!" Pretty much all three of them shouted at once.

Probably Diane was louder since she saw what happened up close. But a question lingers in her mind.

How did it manage to cut through her aura entirely?

"Look out!" She was tackled off the shoulder by Jay and into the ground. "Geez keep yer head on and not off damnit."

Diane's mouth opened to say something before Jay shut her up.

"Get Cindy outta here, me n' Kelly got this-" Jay turned to see Kelly literally punched it hard enough to send it a few yards back. "And make sure she doesn't overkill…"

Jay shoved her aside towards their downed leader. She turned to the brawling powerhouses and leaned her roaring chainsword gun on her shoulder. Kelly was knocked back with a fist to the face a second later, next to Jay.

Jay extended her hand towards her partner, who accepted it. With Kelly staggering to her feet, Ripple Corruption flaring to life again Jay turned her attention to the bloodied dreadnought.

"Throw me." She whispered to her partner who nodded.

Kelly cocked her fist back, the gears of her armored arm churning as it settled into a piston position with the cannon rotated to her face behind her. Her stance widened a little, the braces on her right knee whirled a little before locking into a slightly bent stance.

Jay jumped back, both feet planted on the flat of Kelly's fist with her hands grabbing onto the pauldron behind her to stabilize herself. She held Falling Sky to the ground, the chain solidified into the solid blade before the release.

"Ready?" She asked Kelly who only nodded and twisted her torso into a pithing position.

The Paladin begin charging at them now, their four arms blazing in what seemed like red dust ignited. It almost looked animalistic by the way it was running, Sometimes using its two arms to gain speed and balance while looking like a spiked ball of death.

"Now…" Jay tapped Kelly's leg with her crackling blade and lowered herself slightly.

Kelly threw her with the aid of the mechanical aid or her arm armor. Her cannon fire shook the junction as it nearly threw herself forward trying to throw Jay at their target. She can feel Jay pushing off her fist with her own legs, sending her faster than she anticipated. Though the sheer combined recoil sent her stumbling to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Clank!

Jay reappeared behind the Paladin, sword cutting into the ground. A cheshire grin plastered on her face when she turned around to marvel what will become of the Paladin.

The metal gave a long, heavy creak. The left arms fell to the ground, severed at the shoulder joints. The right arms fell to it's side, the connection muscles cut clean through, rendering the limbs useless.

The torso rotated a little, making Kelly ready herself -when the torso toppled over and crashed to the ground leaving it's legs freestanding.

"And that," Jay jumped onto the top of the torso, arms wide like a magician performing their trick and amazing their audience. "Is sweet revenge on a steel pedestal."

Kelly grunted and threw the heavy arm off her before cracking her back and neck and walked over to where Jay stand and giving her gauntlet a experimental rotation, she plunged her hand into the thick steel. The metal hatch to the cockpit cracked and broke off with a jerk of her metal hand.

"With a shitty aim," She chided the younger girl as she brushed off metal derbies from her and turned to face her mutant in the machine.

"Actually," Kelly raised an eyebrow at her as Jay wafted the smell from her. "I think you did an overkill, not me."

Jay gives her a sheepish smile and rubs the back of her head while Kelly dragged the now mutilated and fused corpse from the cockpit and onto the ground.

"At least he won't bother anyone anymore." Kelly keeled down and grabbed the scroll from his waist and placed its collapsed form into a slot on her forearm before standing up. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

With everyone account including the prisoner and the key piece of evidence, they slowly made their way back to the surface. Diane already applied some basic first aid to their leader while the fight was still going on. Cindy is currently being carried by Kelly with no one else being physically capable of. Jay is being supported by Diane, apparently she injured herself from pulling the human curveball stunt with Kelly.

EBNY was already ahead, alerting SLTE and HLTP to get some proper medical supplies out.

"So you got the scroll," Diane asked Kelly as they sat on the pulley deployed by SLTE.

"Yeah," Kelly pulled it out of the compartment in the side of her gauntlet and gave it to her. "We may have lost a person of interest, but this was inside his corpse."

"Someone didn't want us to find out." Diane gave her back the scroll and placed a finger on her chin. "But why?"

Kelly gave a shrug.


	5. 5- Don't Tamper With Black Magic Period

**WARNING: HEAVY MENTIONS OF BODY HORROR AND BLOOD**

 **Also swearing as well.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Kelly pulled herself up on the broken concrete with a grunt. Her latest shift of patrol made her go to the furthest marked perimeter which was about several kilometers into the forest. Her mask was around her neck as she laid on the ground panting.

She regretted climbing up ten floors literally from the outside without any aid but with Ripple Corruption and her bladed dust revolver. Aside from a few scratches here and there, she is quite fine.

"Hey, Kelly," She heard Jakob call at her from the ground that sat around, eating their field rations. "Aren't you going to eat? It's past seven."

She honestly didn't want to know what is for dinner tonight and as well as she don't want to stomach anything after what she seen in the fight against that Paladin.

"Uh," She paused her panting pushed herself to her feet. "Sure, is it still pork ribs?"

Jakob gave a hearty laugh and place his tankard down on the ground next to him.

"Well it's something different for once," He picked up a box that had the sign '100% meat' on it. "Ozpin actually took the time to sort out meat menus for you and Leona and set boxes of vegetables and fruits for Penelope."

He tossed her the moderately sized cardboard box. Kelly caught it with both her hands as she walked to join the rest of the teams around the bonfire. She looked down to see the label on the box.

*For carnivorous Faunus only* Lean Beef with Pasta with protein mixture and crackers.

It actually sounds appetizing for once.

"Actually, I'll go and make sure Diane and Cindy is alright first." Kelly paused in her walk, glancing through the empty door frame into the roofless room beside them where Diane and Jay are busy discussing things.

"Take your time," Tam waved her chopsticks at her. "Their boxes are by the wall over there."

"Thanks," Kelly nodded and walked to the said wall to pick up the other three cardboard boxes.

* * *

The roofless room gives way to the bright stars above, giving the room a natural light beside the heating lamp. This was once a meeting room before things went down the drain with the Grimm. Now it serves as a room for CTDK to reside in for the base of operations. Furnished with bedrolls and concrete blocks to cover the open window if a firefight were to break out they would have some sort of cover. A portable transmission scroll is set up in the far corner of the room to relay and receive messages from their operators.

"So," Kelly spoke first, placing the box of rations on the ground. "How's Cindy?"

"Her aura isn't replenishing," Jay tapped her scroll a few times, causing screens to pop up everywhere around her. "It stopped at 30%."

Diane shot her a quizzical look.

"See for yourself." Jay tossed her her scroll. "Nothing moving up or down for the past hour."

Kelly curiously looked over Diane's shoulder to see for herself. Jay is right, it did not move at all past 30%. The bar that measured their aura still blinked hazardously.

"Has she been conscious at all either?" Kelly asked them both while running over the 'symptoms' in her mind.

"Nope, not since she got knocked out by the machine and that was two hours ago." Diane gave a long sigh.

Kelly gives a thoughtful nod and picked up the two boxes next to her, handing one each to her teammates.

"Let's just eat for now and we can look into this a bit later," Kelly offered, leaning against the makeshift concrete cover with her box of food. "You need a break."

"How can we take a break when our leader is still unconscious and we don't know shit about what is going on?" Diane glared at her.

"I'm just saying," Kelly raised her hands up to try and cool this from being a argument. "You need to get your head chilled because worrying about this all day is not going to get us anywhere."

"And how are you so calm about what is going on right now?" She retorted quickly, almost to shut Kelly up- which is probably the goal. She suddenly stood, staring down at Kelly with a tint of orange in her eyes. "I don't see you over your head when Jay got injured on the mission in Mistral."

"I don't barge head first like you without looking at the big picture at what we're dealing with, Diane." Kelly stood up to her, taking her turn to glare down at her friend, keeping a level tone of voice. "Unlike you, I would need to know what I'm dealing with and certainly-"

She pointed a armored finger at Cindy's prone from on the bedroll.

"We are not dealing with normal dust mixtures."

"Guys-" Jay started but is shot down by Diane.

"And how would you kn-"

Whack!

Diane and Kelly were clutching their heads in pain as Jay gave an exasperated sigh, placing the flat of Falling Sky on her shoulder. Her other hand held the opened box of food.

"Fighting is not going to do any good you idiots," Jay tapped her foot on the ground. "And certainly Cindy would not like to see you two bicker like old women fighting over the last cup of tea."

Well… Point taken there.

"And I am trying to eat as well," She can feel Jay's stare boring into her. Kelly looked towards Jay and lowered her head slightly.

She had to admit, Jay is scary when she's hungry.

"Let's…" Kelly looked between each of them, taking deep breaths to keep herself calm. "Just calm down. I'm too tired to deal with this right now."

* * *

Kelly looked at her watch that is implemented into her gauntlet. The display lit up along with the rest of her dust levels in the gauntlets reminding her that she need to refill soon.

A solid minute past one in the morning.

She gave a wide mouth yawn as she looked at the snoring forms of her friends, she checked on Cindy earlier, taking mental notes on the injury, size, shape and anything abnormal about it.

And something was abnormal about it. Grimm wounds don't block aura, not even a Death Stalkers. Regular bullets don't hinder it either.

Though, she really felt the need to dive down into the chasm of death and decay to find out what is with those weapons on the Paladin.

Landing with a soft thud of rubber soles on dusty asphalt, Kelly shivered slightly without her haori covering her. Being a cold-blooded does not feel good on cold nights and her trenchcoat was meant to preserve and keep her warm. A hiss escaped her masked mouth as she walked towards the mouth of the chasm.

"You here too huh?" She heard the lively voice of Leona who stood a few feet behind her with Penelope. "Trying to find out what is that weapon laced with?"

"Yeah," Kelly ran her hand through her hair, slicking it back and out of her face.

"Well, me, and Leona want to help out." Penelope pointed behind her to reveal the archer who smiled a little.

"I appreciate the help," Kelly peered down at the dark chasm briefly. "But I hope you know what we're about to see."

Leona walked up to her and gave her a hard slap on her back, knocking the wind out of her.

"Nonsense sister, we got this all covered." The lioness' tongue rolled over 'all' as she tipped backwards, one hand on the few ropes and fell. "See ya down there!"

Kelly gave a growl of annoyance while Penelope snickered behind her.

* * *

How does one describe a place that is darker than black?

A pure pain in the ass to walk around in. And a part to Leona who wanted to 'explore' the best of faunus ability in the dark.

Instead, the three of them counted how many times that ran into a pillar, a rock, a wall and remains. Their natural night vision didn't allow that much difference in terms of running into objects as the tunnels were too dark to even see in.

Clang!

"Oof- okay anyone got a light?" Leona ran into the metal pillars of the junction. She rubbed her sore nose. "I kinda give up on using night vision."

Penelope giggled and snapped her fingers, a small soft white flame formed around her hand before levitating around her freely like butterflies circling around someone in those cheesy movies.

Kelly led the group, her face encased in the extension of her mask like a closed helmet. A soft blue glow can be seen from the glass slip in front of her eyes since it helps her with seeing in the night.

They continued walking down the dark tunnels that its darkness seemed to writhe and never really brighten with the light they have.

A long strenuous pause fell between all of them until Leona cleared her throat.

"So you guys fought here in the junction?" She asked, checking her rifle's ammo clip. "I heard it was an intense battle against a machine if Cindy were to get hurt like that."

"I second that, it takes a lot more than a saw to take that tough girl down," Penelope added in. "We've seen her semblance released and kicking everyone's asses quickly."

"I agree, but whatever somehow cut through her manifested semblance and aura in one hit with a modified weapon is odd," Kelly agreed. "And it's a modified weapon as well, you'll see when we get there."

* * *

The walk took about several more minutes, and several more minutes of perpetual silence. It always felt like something is off about these old tunnels, be it the fact that hundreds died here in vain- or they are smelling the decaying flesh and fresh blood. Go figure.

Their footsteps begins to echo around them and Kelly finally paused.

"We're here." She looked at the blood stained and body riddend grounds of the junction.

Her visor folded back to the metal hatches that line her sideburns. Leona and Penelope walked beside her, looking interstlingly at the bodies of man and machine everywhere.

"Quite a fight you had here." Penelope commented, walking up to the wreckage of the Paladin. "Is this the one?"

"Yeah," Kelly walked over to one of the severed left arms, inspecting the bladed hand.

She can see Penelope firing a ball of white light into the air, suspended on its will as it bathed the entire junction in white light.

Her hidden blade flipped out to rest on her forearm before she sliced the hand off in one clean motion. Holding the saw hand in her gauntlet, she tossed it to Leona who caught it in a cylinder of some kind that attaches to a compartment on her back.

"Uh, guys." She and Penelope heard Leona call out to them, voice shaking. "What the hell is this?"

Kelly walked over, curious of what the lion faunus has to say.

She can feel her dinner rising up to her throat- though Penelope can be heard making gagging noises behind her.

Although curiosity killed the cat and that is all three of them.

"I did not- what?" Kelly stared at body she dragged off earlier.

She didn't get a good look at what happened earlier due to the lack of lights. But this is pretty damn horrifying even to someone as fearless as Leona, stout hearted Penelope and dauntless as Kelly.

Within the jagged opening of the cockpit she ripped open earlier there were wires and chunks of human flesh (no doubt about it, it smelled like it too) that machinery running through them. There was a entire arm that looked as if it is fused with the machine itself. The arm was twisted and the running of wires and pipes can be seen. The fingers were replaced with pipes as the hand looked like the skin was pulled and then super glued to the metal except it turning into metal.

The man's lower body is still stuck in the cockpit, looking as if he was soldered inside of it.

And what horrified them the most was that the spinal cord was _fused_ into the looked like the spinal column of the Paladin.

None of them have ever seen anything horrific like this in their lifetime. Such experiments were never documented on both sides or at all. Except now the image at what monstrosity they just witnessed is burned into their brain forever.

"I'm actually glad the others aren't here…" Leona's voice cracked as she took out her scroll with shaking hands. "We gotta report this to Qrow and everyone else."

Kelly can only nod, focused on the man's face in front of her. He didn't have eyes, just white and his mouth was hung open as if he was screaming for help. She actually fent a bit glad she could end his suffering.

"Wait, isn't that the missing leader of CHRM?" Penelope blinked out of her mortified stupor. "Carver Sanguine I think? Reported missing a year ago."

"I don't want to find out to be honest." Kelly shook her head slowly. She can hear the snapping of pictures from Leona's scroll.

A chill ran down their backs, making them jump and unsheathe their weapons. The air and shadows were moving around them, reaching out to them as it spoke in a strange wispy language they don't recognize.

Their screams echoed the junction and soon after their voices.

"Ha ha, screw this shit this I'm out!" Leona bolted down the way they came.

"Oi, wait up!" Penelope sprinted faster than Leona. "I did not sign up for this!"

"Nope!" Kelly ran after then after firing an explosive round. "Nope! Nope!"

They have never run so fast in their lives before. And honestly won't sleep for another month if they can to not risk seeing what they just witnessed.

* * *

Kelly and the others hastily climbed up to their residential base camp and pretty much woke everyone up with their frantic breathing. VRDN and HLTP were out first, weapons drawn to face anything.

"Where were you guys? What happened?" Jakob asked the petrified trio. Kelly ripped her mask off and threw it to the ground, her hands on her head as she paced around muttering.

"If anything scared Leona and Kelly this badly, it's pretty bad I guess." Hanna kneeled down to the lion faunus who huddled into a ball near the still going fire.

"Poor Penelope," Emily held the shaking gazelle faunus in her arms. "They're scared senseless."

"No shit," Jay walked out with Diane and MLCT, who are all confused.

Athala quickly went up to Kelly, placing a comforting hand on both her shoulders.

"Calm my child," She whispered sweetly into her ear as a gentle hand drew circles on the side of her neck. "Tell us what you saw."

"C-contact Qrow, Ozpin- anyone, they need to see this." She looked at Leona, who took her scroll out and beckoned to Saruman to deploy a holographic feeder.

He placed a small drone like object on the ground and pressed a button. The object began materialising and gaining shape into one of those transmitters in each of their room. Penelope took no time to punch in contact information of every one that was at the meeting and pretty much slammed the call button.

" _You better have a good reason to call us this late BFP_ " Came a very disgruntled voice from the other line.

 _"Now Qrow, no need to get haisty._ " Came Goodwitch's stern voice. " _Ozpin is here with me._ "

" _Not now you two, we need to listen to them and what they have for this emergency call._ " General Ironwood can be heard soon after.

Luckily they all gathered around and behind Kelly, Leona and Penelope as the three saluted quickly, still shaking slightly.

" _They're like a leaf,_ " Qrow's voice came on again. " _Something must've scared em' bad._ "

"With due respect, we," Kelly reported while glancing at the other two. "We found something quite terrifying and require you viewing."

" _Send them in Kiros._ " General Ironwood ordered.

Leona placed the her scroll onto the scanner and Kelly pulled out the bloody scroll and placed it next to hers.

* * *

Both sides were drowned in silence as they watched the video and photo feed of their early morning adventure into the junction.

" _Wow._ " Came the only response from Qrow after several minutes of silence. "That's…"

" _Quite horrifying._ " Ozpin finished it for him. " _And I presume you're running at the end of the video?_ "

They looked sheepishly at their feet.

"Should we also notify Winter?" Penelope asked. "She may be able to decipher what is being said in that and the scroll Kelly sent."

"Sir, there is something we don't know about down there and if it's enough to scare these three as is, it's serious." A voice piped from behind them apparently having listen to the conversation.

"Cindy you're awake!" Diane took no time to hug her partner.

"Oh yeah, there is this weapon that managed to cut through Cindy's aura and Semblance and injure her while blocking her regeneration process as well." Kelly reported.

"Sir, there is something we don't know about down there and if it's enough to scare these three as is, it's serious." A voice piped from behind them apparently having listen to the conversation.

"Cindy you're awake!" Diane took no time to hug her partner.

"Oh yeah, there is this weapon that managed to cut through Cindy's aura and Semblance and injure her while blocking her regeneration process as well." Kelly reported.

" _Do tell,_ " Ironwood's voice beckoned her.

* * *

After what seemed like a solid half hour of questioning and answering, CTDK and EBNY recounted their encounter with the weapon and injury.

" _Hmm, what do you think? Should we worry about this?_ " Goodwitch can be heard talking to Ozpin in the back.

" _We'll discuss in private,_ " He responded to them and his assistant. " _You kids get some rest for now._ "

"Thank you," They saluted before the feed cut off.

Kelly wasted no time to walk into her room with her team and promptly flopped onto her bedroll and closed her eyes, welcoming the dreamless sleep.


	6. 6- Round 1- Strike the Clock!

**If you haven't noticed, some chapters focus on one characters view mostly, while the others focus on the team in general. I know Episode 4 did not come out yet, so this is a bit inaccurate in terms of rules- but anyways here's Jay and Diane.**

* * *

Their airship just landed back at Beacon in time for their doubles round with Kelly and Jay, aka the natural disaster trio. The two of them instantly took off to the holding chamber of the Arena, Diane and Cindy took their time to the front row seats.

"Hey Diane, look." Jay spotted team RWBY among the crowd and waved at them energetically. Diane took a few seconds longer to actually notice them. They were waving excitedly at them, shouting 'Good Luck' to them. She flashed a thumbs up in response.

"Anyways, are you ready?" Diane asked her as she and Jay stands in the center of the ring with their double opponent. Although after seeing a impish grin make its way across her face, she actually wondered why she asked that.

"Psh, you know me, partner." Jay puffed her chest proudly. "Quote always the first to jump in unquote by you."

She can see the regret in Diane's eyes for asking that question.

Jay looked at her two opponents, both male twins and fourth years from the bio she read before she and Diane walked into the holding area for contestants.

Brennus Gale and Arzur Gale.

Both as tall as Kelly (and handsome as well) with well kept blonde streaked black hair, mismatched violet and blue eyes which each of them mirrored. Their outfit had them well armored with riveted metal plating and judging from their medium sized build meant they probably wield a well balanced weapon of some kind.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the 40th Vytal Tournament Doubles Round!" Professor Port announced.

"Today's battlers will be Brennus and Arzur Gale, the tempest duo." The crowd cheered on as the twins appeared on the arena, blowing kisses to the ladies. "And on the other side we have Diane Tactio and Jay Delun."

Cheering roared across the stadium, they bowed and waved, Jay pointing to team RWBY in the stands flashing a smug grin. Diane shook her head at her friend and gave her a playful punch on the shoulder.

Professor Oobleck ran over the rules quickly as usual before announcing the count down.

Jay boredly looked at the two rolling biome meters, itching to see what it landed on.

The first landed on Ruins.

Half of the arena sprouted up broken concrete and buildings- reminiscent of where they were for the past three days.

The second landed on Gysers.

The other half of the biome transformed into a rocky landscape with steam and boiling water spewing up now and then.

Jay looked over to Diane, giving her a small smile.

The clock began counting down, both Brennus and Arzur with their identical warhammer drawn, focused on pretty much trying to smash both of them down. But they don't know who they're going against just yet.

Kelly and Jay looked relaxed, their stance loose and hands crossed over their chest or at their side.

"You know the drill." Kelly whispered as her power fist enveloped her whole arm. Jay can see the locks on her mask disengaging, the metal creaked as she gives a slight movement.

"Hell yeah I do." Jay gives her an all too familiar crazed grin.

Diane drew in a long breath as the timer hit 02.

Beep!

Green fire sweeps over the entire field of view as Diane threw down a grenade. Jay took the chance to switch places with Diane while she retreated to the ruins taking cover behind behind concrete blocks, hidden from sight. Once she has seen the glint of the muzzle from between the cracks that signaled the Diane is ready Jay rolled her head a few times and flicked her arms, a grin plastered on her face. The fire subsided moments later, dispelled by the two boys that is now charging at her with their hammers high above their heads.

"Come at me ladies." Jay taunted, pulling Falling Sky from her back. She stepped back once, her finger finding purchase on the trigger of the hilt without having her actual hand on the hilt.

Falling sky shot out, propelled by it's own bullet whilst in its scabbard. She quickly grabbed the hilt of her miaodao, effectively deflecting the two blows in one swipe with Falling Sky's momentum in a shower of blue sparks over her head.

She spun around to instantly parry the warhammer that is supposed to aim at her lower back. Responding by kicking him in the face with her boot, she hears the unmistakable ghost wind of someone behind her. She rolled off to the side to anticipate a double attack.

But instead saw two bullets ward off the other twin to give her a breather. Even though Diane just happen to draw their attention to her instead, she can see her partner standing venerable in the open.

The rifle glinted twice to her.

"And there's Diane giving her position!" Professor Port spoke excitedly into the mic.

One of the twins charged at Diane, his hammer changing into a heavy looking compact rifle. And of course Diane would take her time to engage into close combat with him. Jay can see her jumping over the concrete, Bleak Dusk shifting into it's claymore from. Diane swings the sword, the air rippled before exploding in an arc, covering them in a orange light. The armored boy skid a few yards back, breathing heavily from Diane's attack.

"That's gotta leave a mark!" Oobleck commented on her. "No one expects a sharpshooter to have such a mighty weapon to wield."

Diane lunged with Bleak Dawn, ready to cut her opponent down.

"Stand still. So. I. Can. Kill. You!" The boy grunted between swings of his hammer at her. For someone who looks calm and collected. He really isn't as most of his swings are now from frustration. "Why aren't you fighting back?"

"Because I don't feel like it?" Jay raised an eyebrow, step siding an overhead blow. The hammer created a fairly large crater where she has been seconds ago.

Jay jumped over his weapon without much thought. Her heavy boot collided with his head, sending him staggering back a few feet.

"You want a challange?" Jay lunged, her eyes hardened and matching her maniacal smile. "I'll give you the fight!"

"Oh Ms. Delun is performing the melody of the blades." Oobleck commented at the shifting of Falling Sky.

Jay held her prized weapon out, a boiling stream of pressurized air and water enveloped the blade as the hot contents fanned into the air.

Falling sky vibrated before the red, hot blade exploded into its chain sword mode, roaring as loud as its wielder from the adrenaline rush. She swung it against his breastplate, The fresh white blade gorging the thick metal breastplate. It was a melody to her ears.

"Falling Sky, Ms. Delun's sword gains power when Jay turns into her bloodlusting mode so to speak." Professor Port announced at her sheer raw unrestrained power. "And the more she fights, the more lethal her weapon becomes."

Without pausing, she continued her onslaught, never giving him the time to even lift the hammer an inch before being assaulted by her or Falling Sky over and over. Each time her weapon struck, the screeching began sounding like a melody of steel and she is the conductor.

She began laughing, Falling Sky begins roaring faster as she swings it at his chest again, the rotating teeth meeting the thick armor of his causing blue sparks to fly out before she gives a mighty heave, throwing him back into the invisible wall that surrounds the arena. She can almost hear the surprised gasps of the crowd as she brutally decimate her opponent aura and ability to fight in such a short amount of time without breaking a sweat.

"And Brennus Gale is out!" The portly man shouted. "Only seven minutes in and one of the prodigy fighter is out!"

Only then did Falling Sky revert to its solid blade form and cooled instantly to rest on her shoulder with a smug grin on her face. She can feel a content hum of Falling Sky as it finally quieted down and the exhaust stopped emitting warm air as if it has fallen into its slumber once again.

She felt slightly sorry for pretty much ruining the finely crafted armor.

She turned her attention to Diane who just stepped aside an overhead blow and jumped kicked him in the wielding shoulder, staggering him. She then spun around, dragging Bleak Dawn's sharp edge into his chest plate- a firm and powerful uppercut that knocked the hammer's aim before performing a exploding reposite powered by the burst fire that came from within Bleak Dawn. The collision of metal to metal caused an explosion of orange that sent the boy flying into the wall of the arena.

"And the victory goes to Diane Tactio and Jay Delun of Vale!" The overhead announcement came on.

Jay looked up at the aura meters for her and Diane. She herself just barely hanging on the seventy-five percent while Diane fared at a seventy-nine percent.

Roars of the crowd cheered at them as the shield went down, the artificial landscape returning to the normal rough arena surface. Jay and Diane sheathed their weapon in their holsters before giving a deep bow and walked to exit the arena, ecstatic by their victory and promotion to singles.

* * *

"Good job Jay," Diane gave her a short hug. "Although you did do a bit of an overkill again."

"Psh, I wasn't even trying to," Jay placed a hand on her hip with a cocky grin. "Okay maybe a little, but hey, no one's dead… Yet."

Diane rolled her eyes at that.

"Keyword is yet."

"Good job you two." Cindy greeted them in the lobby for holding the contestants. She gave them both a pat on the back. "Always knew you had it in you to succeed."

Kelly, always not really the physical contact person just gave them a thumbs up of approval and a big smile to match. The goliath of the team opened her mouth to speak when a loud, boisterous voice rang around the entire lobby.

"Congratulations ladies!" Jakobs loud bubbly voice rang around as his large hand slapped her back, promptly knocking her breathless.

"Thanks." Jay and Diane said simultaneously before Diane quickly straightened. "Wait, why are you here? I thought you were still in the forest."

"Well, everyone is pulled back for an emergency of some kind and being stationed here in Beacon," Emily's voice piped up from behind them, followed by a squawk. "Oh and Jakob, your team needs you… Again."

"Ah jeez, what 'ey do this time?" The heavily built fighter sighed and pulled out his scroll. The instant first news that popped up is a bar fight that is happening a few blocks away. "Not again…"

"Well, I'll take my leave now." He cleared his throat, slipping his scroll back into his pocket. "See you guys later."

"Get them with haste, they want to see _all_ the teams on hand at nineteen hundred hours," Emily shouted at Jakob's running from before turning back to Jay and the others. "Anyways, congratulations on your victory, though may I inquire who you are going to nominate for the other doubles round of fun?"

Jay looked at the rest of her team, she may be itching to fight again, but what's the fun in taking all the fighting.

"Kelly and I." Cindy spoke up, patting the faunus on the arm. "We're waiting right now actually."

"Oh," Emily looked a bit surprised- and so is Jay and Diane. "Cindy, aren't you still in recovery?"

"Yeah, you just woke up two days ago and already fighting now?" It is Jay's turn to be concerned for her leaders wellbeing. Cindy may be tough all over, but even the invincible have their limits.

" _Cindy Gare and Kelly Lernean report to the holding immediately, your round start in five minutes_."

"That's our cue." Kelly arched her back, loud popping and cracking can be heard, making Jay cringe a little.

"I wish you both luck then," Emily smiled at them, Tryygr cawed. "And be careful."

"Will do." Cindy shouted back as she and Kelly walked to the chamber where they would appear to fight in.

* * *

 **I actually don't know if doubles fight twice- but I'm sure there are a lot of doubles teams that would go to singles and so forth. So I guess they fight twice before a team ascends to the singles round.**

 **If anyone didi not catch it- I revealed Jay's semblance which is similar to necromancy and berserker hybrid- but with whatever she touches and bonds with (ie Falling Sky). In some cases it's permanent like with her weapon.**

 **When Jay activates her semblance- she enters a berzerker trance meaning she fights faster and harder and more dangerous. F.S will automatically respond by changing into its chainsword mode and will increase in power the longer Jay stays in her semblance. (i.e your best chance at surviving is running.)**

 **I did not reveal Diane's just yet- but with hints like Kelly and Cindy.**

 **Up next: Strike the Bell! (With explosions and throwing people)**


	7. 7- Round 2- Strike The Bell!

**I have not watch the new episode yet and this was written a day ago.**

 **So long story short we get to explore Cindy and Kelly's semblances.**

* * *

" _Ladies and gentleman, welcome Josh Nemean and Vilda Halse, the power duo!_ "

Cheers and roars erupted around the arena as they waved to the crowd.

Josh Nemean and Vilda Halsen are about the same height and are both third years. The boy had what seemed like a fur trimmed cuirass on that had an engraving of a lion on it. Both of his hands are covered in golden gauntlets with the fingertips extending into long, sharp dust coated claws. Not to mention the gold colored sabatons he wears looks like there are possible claws in there too judging by the four slits on the metal parallel to the foot.

Meanwhile Vilda Halsen, her gloved hand gripped a lance that glinted with an aura of its own. She was outfitted in a what seems to be thick leather armor, segmented and padded at vital areas. Over her right armpit held a steel triangular besagew. A steel bevor covered her neck and chin.

" _Here comes the one and only powerhouse- Cindy Gare and Kelly Lernaean!_ "

Cindy and Kelly gave a slight bow before unsheathing their weapons.

The clock begins counting down.

They watched as the biome reader spin, ready to adapt into any given territory, be it something new or old.

The first one landed on Marshes.

Cindy can almost feel the excitement radiating off Kelly who has a natural advantage in this. The area became dense with murky water that went up to your hip (in some parts) or to your chest, depending. You can't even see past you kneecap or whatever in the water. Not to mention the mangroves that littered here and there, providing places to hide if you can breathe underwater.

The second landed on Mire.

The soft mud and grass formed in the other half of of the arena, letting off a tangy scent that makes their nose cringe. But she can see Josh give a grin, most likely meaning that he has a natural advantage in this biome.

Beep!

She can hear the clanking of Kelly's trenchcoat on the arena grounds before rushing forward suddenly with a burst of speed tackling Vilda into the murky water behind them. Kelly pulled a back flip into the high, murky waters with a splash behind her, disappearing the instant she touched the deep water leaving her opponent flailing in the waters as she tries to find footing and keep an eye out for her.

Cindy gives out a roar as she lunges at Josh, Mourning Dawn clashing against clawed hands. She swung again, only for him to slide back, delivering a clawed foot to her face in efforts to make her stumble. Cindy reeled back from the attack to give a roundhouse kick in counter which succeeded locked their legs together. Cindy gives a hard tug, sending the boy to the ground unceremoniously while dragging Mourning Dawn though the air to try and smash him while he is down.

Wham!

And that's the sound of someone's foot being kicked into her face. Hard.

" _Ooh, that's gotta hurt._ " Cindy heard as she reeled back, her jaw stinging as stars shot into her vision momentarily.

But Josh is proven to be a fast opponent as opposed to Kelly who is slower. Not bad for a third year.

She shook her head and swings again, her blade meeting Josh's dual claws in a shower of sparks. They exchanged blows, neither falling to the other and neither giving into the strong blows. She took noticed of how he would evade most central attacks and block almost all attacks that's aimed high- not so much on the low. His claws are in fact really painful when it collided with her arm, the dust coat is probably electric since it made her arm numb when it nicked her.

She grinned and slashed downwards- pulling the trigger on Mourning Dawn, giving her a boost in power as she quickly flicked her wrist- driving the ax into a powerful riposte. She scored across his cuirass and threw him back into his bottom.

Cindy pumped her gun once, loading a fresh cartridge into Mourning Dawn.

In front of her she can see Vilda looking frantically around in the murky waters for any of Kelly's movements. It's been minutes- but Kelly's mask has a water breathing feature installed so... Cindy snickered as a small ripple came from a few yards behind her.

Kelly breached the surface of the water like a Charodon Grimm (which is a very large shark). Her mask was already split open with the green markings glowing on her body and Ripple Corruption all armed as the girl turned to the sudden noise.

And screamed loud, trying to swing her lance in time to impale Kelly.

But Kelly was faster, her hand grasped the lance away from her before her gauntlet hand grabbed her by the face, her thumb cutting through the steel gorget from her locked grip. She flipped them both over into the waves, wrestling for control of each other.

" _Vilda's struggling against Kelly in a deadlock in deep waters!_ "

And dragged them both beneath the waves in a mess of limbs and weapons.

She hopes Kelly won't actually drown her, but she trust that Kelly.

"Vilda!" She heard Josh scream before turning to block slash with her bracer.

" _Take a look at that surprise attack pulled off by Kelly, it seems that Vilda is struggling._ "

Kelly cocked her armored arm back before smashing it back down hard enough to create a crater in the artificial flooring.

Cindy blocked his blow by step siding and kneeing him in the gut, before grabbing his wrist and pulling him over her head and onto the ground. He got back on his feet faster than she expected with a good fist to her chest, knocking the wind out of her.

Don't get cocky young man.

She swept his feet from under him, and rolled away without giving him an opening.

Cindy jumped back, distancing herself from him a good ten yards and stretch her arm out, her palm facing him. She knew Kelly knows what this means and she sure as hell knows that the faunus would take cover of some kind.

He lunged at her, his claws crackled with electricity. Then the air around her felt heavy as it condensed into a semi-translucent upper body of a skeleton, it's petrifying visage glaring down at her opponent before her. A battle ax made of fire materialized in its bony hand, mirroring Cindy. The eyes began glowing the same fire in it's hand, angry and eager to cause havoc at her command.

Josh very much stopped in his tracks as he made eye contact with the avatar.

" _Cindy has released her semblance and Josh is petrified to even mov-_ " One can see Professor Ports excitement or hear.

" _Yes, Cindy- like Kelly, has trained enough to manifest their semblance to the physical plane which is very hard to do as to most it is only a ability enhancer._ " Oobleck interrupted suddenly. " _And obviously, Cindy has called forth her own to aid her._ "

Beside her, she can see Kelly throwing Vilda out of the water before lunging after her, exchanging blows of fist to lance.

" _And that is one way to end the fight for Josh Nemean._ " Oobleck's voice rang up as they both raised up their war axes' in unision. " _And all inside there_."

 _Destroy the heavens!_

Cindy let out a shout and made a downward slashing motion towards the ground. Her avatar, the skeleton war god let out an inhuman screech that echoed around the entire dome and arena as the battle ax slammed into the ground, creating geysers of fire everywhere, enveloping the entire arena in a dome of red fire. The waters on both side evaporated, leaving scorched trees and dirt.

And everyone else outside the shield can feel the scorching heat wave.

* * *

The aura meter between Josh, Vilda and Kelly dropped drastically. Of course Josh was the first to reach a meager one percent and a knockout, Vilda, already with her aura dampened by Kelly while being underwater had it slowly ebbed away from the scorching heat.

And Kelly, a case of friendly fire she knows too well, had it slowly crawling down the meter into the orange a possible fifty-eight percent. Had she not been that durable and heat resistant, things would be a bit different. And she herself stands at a perfect sixty percent mark from the use of her semblance.

" _A double knockout! Cindy is on a roll, never failing to strike fear into anyone._ "

The avatar raised its ax, the fire instantly stopped. The entire area was blackened with no recognition of what the biomes were before she materialised her semblance. The Skeleton disappeared with the smoke, leaving her and Kelly standing.

" _Victory to Cindy Gare and Kelly Lernaean!_ "

Cindy walked up to a slightly smoking Kelly and gave her a slap on the back, promptly knocking her down to the ground.

"Whoops."

"I hate you." Came Kelly's muffled voice as she rolled over to lay on the soot covered ground.

"Love you too." Cindy nudged her with her boot.

Kelly pushed herself off the ground and brushed the soot from her armor. Cindy handed her her dirtied haori from the ground and patted her back.

"C'mon," She smiled at Kelly and began walking towards the exit. "We have a meeting in a few hours so we might as well freshen up before we go in looking like we just come out of a wildfire."

* * *

 **Annnd Cindy's semblance is revealed!**

 **Her Semblance takes form of a giant translucent skeleton warrior that can take offensive and defensive at her will. And obviously has a great AoE (Area of Effect) damage.**

 **And I'll e surprised if the new rwby episode talks about creating shapes with ones semblance...**


	8. 8- The Queen Arrives

**AHHH I'm so excited to see the new episode!**

 **Anyways this takes place a day before Vol 3 Chapter 5 because I started late...  
**

* * *

 **The Day Before**

She looked at the clock with weary eyes, tired from watching so much footage and flicking her eyes between one too many screens for one person to keep up. She rubbed her strained eyes and placed her metal chin in the cup of her hand, her other hand tapping rhythmically on the table. Ripple Corruption housed neatly on her forearm in it's vambrace form.

"Hey Kelly," Her vox receiver sounded in her ear. Kelly paused the match between Emily and Ying with another duo to press a button on her ear. It was Cindy.

"Hn?" Kelly grunted. Finally, after hours of sitting in a char in a empty room someone finally talks with her. She absentmindedly twirled a switchblade in her hand. "What's up?"

"Nothing up, just checking in with you if you found anything worth our attention." She can hear the clicking of boots echo in the background. "Me and Diane have nothing so far."

"Same here," She watched a Atlesian Knight pass from her monitor's reflection. "Unless watching people getting their asses handed to them count, then I don't know anything else."

She hears both of them snort at that.

"Touché." Cindy replied after clearing her throat. "Anyways, let's wrap up, it's already ten past nine. The workers need to do repairs and clean up."

* * *

Whack!

Kelly decided the training room is a good place to relax.

Not really, it acted as a de-stresser.

The Ursi holograms disappeared once it hit the ground with a solid smack around her. She spun around on the balls of her heels and pulled out her issued dagger, effortlessly deflecting a holographic claw with a satisfying clink of claws to steel. She took the brief moment to slide back to give herself some breathing space. Another ursa barreled at her side, knocking the wind out of her momentarily as she stumbled for a foothold.

"Two can play a game huh?" She gave a fanged smile and the blade resting at her armored elbow flipped out and locked itself on her wrist, the barrel of her autocannon shifted onto the inside of her forearm, below her hand. She slipped her dagger into the slot under the gun muzzle in a form of a bayonet.

Both of the training dummies charged in different directions at her.

Without taking a breath, she stabbed her fist into the first Ursa, right in it's eye before whipping out her dust revolver and turning her body, shoving the gun barrel and muzzle into it's wide mouth and pulled the trigger on both her weapons, setting off a small and large explosion simultaneously on either side of her.

A loud beeping sound caught her attention, signaling her session has ended. Kelly drew in breaths she didn't know she was holding until now and wiped the sweat off her brow. She looked over her scroll, checking the time she beat all those grimms in.

Breathing without her mask actually felt a bit easier.

"Thirty minutes for five waves," She shrugged. "A bit slower, but not bad."

She can feel a slight pang radiating from her right knee and ankle, right under the metal braces she wear over them. Thing's hasn't been easy for her after the incident with the Crocus Grimm in her first year with her team in Mistral.

"Kelly." She paused at Diane's voice at the steel doors. She places the scroll she is holding on the ground. "Can we talk for a second?"

"What is it?" Kelly turned around to face Daine. "Huh?"

No one was there, but her.

She flicked her tongue once, trying to catch a brief scent in the air if Diane was here.

She placed her mask over her face at Ripple Corruption ran over her arm again. She placed a finger over the vox-network on the side of her mask over her ear.

"Hey Diane," Kelly looked around briefly. "Where you at?"

There was the sounds of crashing pots and pans and a long string of colorful words.

"Uhh, the dorm? Making dinner?" She heard Diane's voice seconds later. "Why?"

"Weird, I heard you here a minute ago." Kelly scratch the back of her head.

"Strange, Cindy is here and Jay is at the bar with Emily." Diane said after moments of silence.

"Did you notice anything odd?" That was Cindy's voice just now. "Any scent whatsoever?"

"No, but I'll stick around for a bit." Kelly hung up, opening her mask to take whiffs of air.

She walked slowly, trying to not make noise from her walking as she looked around, eyes scanning or anything out of the norm. Her scroll was off and taped to her belt via magnetic hatches.

The air smelled off and not of Diane. That is the only clue she needed as she flipped the blade and cannon out on her powerful can see blurs moving around her, too fast for her to see- but not fast enough to escape her nose.

"Who are you?" She hisses into the empty air, certain she is not alone anymore. She felt the wind stop around her.

"Kelly, over here!" Kelly whipped around at the excited voice of Diane behind her.

And nearly got stabbed through the eye with a thin blade had she not moved at the last second.

Diane does not use thin blades whatsoever.

Nor does she sound like Jay either...

She punched Diane, Ripple Corruption exploding in power at the collision of solid matter. She hears the sound of glass shattering, not just seeing it. A few feet in front of her stood a rather small, pink and white dress girl with pink and brown hair and mismatched eyes. Kelly takes careful note on her pink and brown eyes.

"On behalf of Remnant Frontier Patrols identify yourself." Kelly spoke calm and steely while trying to discern if this smaller girl is any threat at all.

She said nothing. Kelly tilted her head in confusion. She catches a slight sounds of clicks and her hand brushed her revolver on her thigh.

"Very well then." Kelly gives a smug grin under her mask. She gives a curt bow, her eyes never leaving her possible target.

As she anticipates, the dual colored girl stepped first, her parasol smacking Kelly's face particularly hard, enough to make her stagger slightly. Kelly responded by trying to sweep her off her feet- only to be jumped over and feeling a hand grab the back of her breastplate and flung overhead into the hard ground.

She rolled aside from the oncoming drop kick before rolling into her feet again and pulled out her combat dagger while pulling them both into a melee stance.

She has to give it to her, the intruder is fast and strong.

Every attack she tried to land with either hand were countered, deflected or evaded. It felt as if she was toying with her.

A agitated growl rumbled at Kelly's throat as the green markings glowed as her power fist plates slided begin revealing gears and blades.

A kick to her chest interrupted her charged power fist and felt her leg give away as she was flung into the nearby bleachers, her backplate luckily absorbed the harsh impact.

* * *

"Huh?" Jay heard the sounds of metal to concrete echoing around the empty halls.

She was on her way to meet up Kelly after her mini "brawl of a bar" at the lounge downtown. Though the sounds of crashing with that level of noise is a bit concerning. She knows Kelly is big and her sounds of crashing does not make the ground vibrate.

Her steps broke into a light jog to get to the training room to see what happened.

"What the-?" She never looked so confused before when she first looked into the room.

The sight before he made her giggle inside and a bit nervous and Kelly was passed out slumped against the wall, bleachers broken around her.

"Ohh boy…" She looked at the little ice cream colored girl before her, the mismatched eyes staring back at her. She reached for Falling Sky on her back, the blade shifting into its solid blade from instantly as she shifted into her defensive stance.

The girl bowed at her. And Jay made the first move cautiously, her blade rippling the air as it made contact with the parasol the pink girl held. She spun around and blocked a kick with her bracer before grabbing the girl's foot and pulled her over her head to throw her aside and to give her some breathing space.

Jay had a hard time trying to hit the girl- blocked, countered or evaded even with her speed. She tried calling forth her semblance, but she lacked the thrill of doing so as it is replaced by agitation of every time her attack if defends against.

She thrust one more time, hoping to score a hit- but only for her to shatter in pieces of glass.

And the girl is nowhere to be seen.

"What-" Jay looked around frantically, her blade shifting into its chainsword from. She felt a hand grab the back of her purple shirt, choking her as she felt herself flip over someone. She slammed into ground with a loud crash.

* * *

The sound of ice shattering broke the air as three bolts of ice the size of a man sped to its target. But the multicolored girl turned away and deflected each one.

The girl spins around to get a better look at the newcomer, expecting another easy target. Needless to say, she looked stunned.

Kelly and Jay looked up expecting Weiss to be at the door, but their reaction mirrors that of the intruder.

A person almost as tall as Kelly, clad in a segmented chrome cuirass, pauldrons tassets and bracers all over a short teal robe stood at the door. A dragon visage helm sat on their head as if glaring into their souls. A kite shield of ice sat on their right arm as their left hand grasped a sword hilt without any blade.

They all seemed to recognize the carved wyvern herald on their upper breastplate, glistening under the moonlight of the open room.

The figure stepped forward, flicking the hilt of the sword once, ice began gathering and forming a long blade, almost as tall as the person themself.

They lunged, the ice sword crashing against the umbrella in shrieks as they did not give her the chance to recover or gain ground whatsoever. The person was gaining the upper hand by grabbing the girl by their collar, hoisting her close to the dragon visage.

"Drak ignum mork zai..." A garbled feminine voice growled out from behind the facemask. Her free hand pulled the visor up, revealing pale white skin, sharp angular features and ice blue eyes glaring into the now white eyes. The blue eyes flicked to the sky briefly. "Mire tron lockhed."

"Now get out of my sight." She threw the smaller woman aside who instantly disappeared in a white flash. She looked at the sky again, this time two comet like things streaked across the stratosphere towards the earth. She flipped the visor over her face again and turned to the two on the ground.

"I'll explain later." She spoke with a accent. "Once we all gather."

* * *

 **Presently**

Before them all stood an individual of great untold and unmatched power. She stood tall and proud in all her panoply of war, her helmet hooked to her belt and her white hair pulled into a high ponytail. None of CTDK recognized her at first until a giant ice wyvern appeared from a rift torn in the sky. It's great wings blocked out the sun as it circled overhead, a watchful eye kept on the grounds.

Hauzurfurn.

"Cyres Fulgrin. The Queen of Scyrus," Cindy jay nearly dropped at seeing the ice queen on Vale. "Why are you here."

Cyres brought out a scroll, with the copy of the video of Kelly, Penelope and Leona's discovery back at the underground city.

"We got note of this a few days ago." She cleared her throat as the scroll feed ended. "We were called to aid in the investigation."

"The others are due within the next hour or more."

"Wait, as in team ROCK?" Jay interrupted.

"Correct." She waved her off. "This matter is serious enough for us to look into with you."

"May I inquire why?" Kelly spoke up behind her.

"You are not only tampering with dust magic- but black magic." Cyres turned to face Kelly with a hardened look. "What you saw as rippling shadows is the result of someone is using it wrong. And that poor boy that was fused with metal? Yes, he was the result of that black magic, but the pathway was left open for this to crawl through and it will endanger the whole population of Remnant I've seen it destroy a planet before."

"So is it still open?" Diane asked.

"Thank the overlords no, I closed it before coming to aid Kelly and Jay." Cyres sighed in relief, but her eyebrows furrowed. "But I did not sense it in the tunnels anymore. It moved."

She leaned back, the armor plates clanking against each other as she gives a small smile.

"Now I believe Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long is fighting tomorrow in the dome." She gives a curt bow and turned on her heels. "It will be rude of me to drop by and not visit them."

"O-of course, we won't keep you waiting." Cindy and the others waved goodbye to Cyres, Hazurfurn taking a land on top of the school.

* * *

 **Here is introducing my other team (you may or may not recognize) ROCK  
**


	9. 9- The Roundabout

**Yes, ROCK (rather RCK) is my other OC Team that is influenced by Warhammer 40K motifs.**

 **Anyways- based on the most current episode- enjoy!**

* * *

"Cyres." A large machine-like being stood on front of her, black and silver trimmed armor covered most of their features, with a red cloak the is draped over their left shoulder. Their helmet's gray eyes glowed under the visage of the horns. Large bracers hid the clawed weapon the machine has up their sleeves.

Cyres turned from the match below her to smile at the familiar sight.

"It's nice to see you too Akaia," She patted the thick metal plated arm. "Is Rio and Mel here as well?"

"They are with Qrow and Ozpin as we speak," Her gutteral and garbled voice came behind the helmet. "I have two squads deployed on duty here."

Akaia beckoned to two of the large soldiers clad in the same bulky black and silver trimmed armor standing amongst the crowds. They each held large guns in their hands, gray eyed helmets turning occasionally to the crowd.

"We are ready to take action as of now, Mordred is awaiting us at the Monastery Caverns in Atlas." Akaia nodded and dissolved into her own shadow.

"Excellent, Hazurfurn is currently aiding VRDN and SLTE in the Emerald Forest." Cyres turned her attention back to the match.

* * *

"Victory goes to Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee!"

No one knew who screamed louder, CTDK or the crowd. Jay was jumping up and down in her seat, Kelly was shy to go all out, instead she cheered like a bit too cautiously, Diane and Cindy were going all out to the point CIndy nearly called forth her semblance in her excitement.

"That's my girls!" Jay screamed out loud and prompted looks from the rest of team. "What?"

The rest of the time proceeded them judging her.

"I'm actually more concerned for Weiss as of right now." Kelly commented as she slipped her scroll back into her belt.

They watched as Ruby and Blake jump over the stands, rushing over to their partners sides. And then watching as they ran off to the side with Yang carrying Weiss.

"Let's go." Cindy ordered. They left the bleachers quickly and disappeared into the halls.

"Congratulations you two." Cindy and the rest of CTDK were visiting in the infirmary for the WY of RWBY. "Quite a match you displayed there."

"Thanks Cindy." Yang gives her a thumbs up, though her arm was wrapped in a layer of bandages.

"How's the burns coming along?" Kelly asked Weiss who is basically almost covered in bandages as opposed to Yang. "Gave us quite a scare when we saw you aura go to zero."

"We got wor-" A loud crash of the door interrupted Diane as a girl with red streaked brown hair bounced in, her tan trench coat covering most of her body. Her arms covered with large silver gauntlets and leather straps going around her torso holding two guns onto her back.

"What's up guys!" The girl's enthusiastic voice rang through the room. Their attention fully to her now as the short girl made her grand entrance. "Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang- congratulations on your victory."

"Mel!" Yang grinned from ear to ear at the sight of her older friend. Mel went over to Ruby and Blake, enveloping them both in a bone-crushing hug. Literally, they can hear their back cracking, making the rest of the people in the room cringe.

"Mel, please do refrain from roughhousing them." Cyres scowled at her as she walked in, a frown of disapproval on her face. Mel dropped the two into heap onto the ground before turning to Yang, completely ignoring Cyres.

"Yang," She hugged Yang. "C'mere!"

Lucking between all of them, they all know Yang is the only one that can handle and return Mel's hugs from Hell.

"Mel!" Yang laughed, putting Mel into a headlock and giving her noogie. "How've you been?"

"Don't move around or you're going to injure yourself again." Both Weiss and Cyres chided.

CTD didn't know how to react in this situation and felt a bit of a odd ball in this.

"Mel, get off of Weiss this instant!" They hear Cyres yelling at Mel.

"Make me princess!"

"You insufferable oaf." Cyres placed a hand on her chest, exaggeration emotions and expression. "After eight years and you still haven't won a Dumbass of the Year Award."

"Hey!"

Blake walked up to Kelly and nudged her, drawing the tall girl's attention while everyone else's is at the display in front of them.

"Can we talk outside in the courtyard?" She asked Kelly, who nodded.

"Wherefore?" Kelly asked before closing the door behind them.

* * *

The two faunus' stopped in the center of the tiled courtyard, rather a large garden that is at the furthest from any buildings whatsoever, surrounded by fauna of all kinds- hanging from the arches overhead, crawling up the pillars or off of the trees that bear fruit, giving them all the privacy they need.

Kelly leaned against a apple tree, her eyes trained on Blake as she paced back and forth. Blake clearly has something on her mind, but how to word it- probably not so much.

Though, there is a possible chance she wants to confirm her theory on why CTDK is so friendly her and her team and not the others.

"Are you wondering why we are so friendly to you guys?" Kelly spoke, keeping her eyes trained on Blake. "And wondering it I am involved with the White Fang in any way?"

That got her attention, the girl stopped pacing, gold eyes boring into Kelly's gold and silver reptilian eyes. She kept quiet as beckoning Kelly to continue. She pushes herself off the tree and walks closer to Blake.

"I can tell you this Belladona, I am not," She paused briefly. "But I know you were once one and we CTDK have no qualms about that, neither does the RFP."

Blake is about to speak but Kelly continues, speaking in a low voice.

"I know who you are Blake, and I'm sure you know about me too." She finishes and leans back. "It's all files you have read in the past."

Kelly watched in amusement as Blake glared at her as if she was going to kill her at any second.

"Kiros "Kelly" Lernaean, Komodo Dragon, threat level five, origin unknown," Blake seems to have memorized all her data to the point she can rehearse it out like a memory. But then again, her face is always in a book. "Her semblance is the h-"

"You can stop there." Kelly smiled and pulled off her mask.

"So be it," Blake shrugged. "But what about you mentioned earlier about befriending us?"

"That…" Kelly arched an eyebrow. "Is classified."

She interrupted Blake the second time.

"Then what's your reason for trusting ROCK?" She leaned closer almost able to see the gears turning in the girl's head. "It's the same for the two of us."

Kelly's earpiece beeped, causing a video feed to pop in front of her eyes, the caller tracing to Jay as a map appears, showing her in the middle of a plaza. Kelly reeled back to look at the video feed.

"Something happened?" Kelly excused herself by turning away.

" _Uhhh, I'm in a tight spot?_ " There was screaming in the back and the sounds of gunfire. " _Someone went bonkos there's an explosion- a man I think or tw- oof.!"_

"Jay?" Kelly had more screens pop up to Cindy. "Jay, answer me."

" _S-sorry, I just got hit in the back, I'm fine."_ She can hear that she is a bit breathless on the other side.

Jay hung up as Cindy picked up.

"Jay is in trouble and there are gunmen I presume in the preceding area I am sending… now." Kelly started without waiting. "I'll meet you there."

" _Roger that_." Cindy hung up.

Kelly hung up and turned to Blake.

"What about us?" She asked Kelly as she already turned on her heel. "Should we help?"

"If you want to see real blood painting the streets," She ran towards the high walls. "Keep your innocence- mostly that and Ruby don't need to see any of this!"

Kelly disappeared over the wall after running up it.

* * *

The final rays of the sun is still high in the sky, almost shrouding their tactical bullhead perfectly from the eyes below. The flight took no longer than six minutes, seven at most to the outermost southeastern part of Vale where the borders of agricultural and residential districts join at the river.

Of all the places, how did Jay end up at the outskirt of Vale again? The area beyond the city is all forest and a perfect place to hide runaways, monsters, fugitives and much more.

The bullhead hovered over the area, not sure where to land at all in the chaos below them. The plaza was chaotic, people running everywhere, gunfire here and messes everywhere. Jay is waving at the bullhead from behind one of the fountain's walls.

"On the rooftop there!" Cindy shouted to the pilot at the nearby flat top building.

The bullhead heaved as it ascended, before jerking to the side.

Diane disembarked first, landing on the roof and running over to the edge where she set up her vantage point with Bleak Dusk. Cindy landed directly into the fray, weapon ready for anything. Kelly landed last with her cannon set up next to Diane, gun spinning and ready to fire.

"Jay!" Cindy slid over to Jay behind a concrete wall. "What is going on?"

"Some explosion and crap and next thing I know there's screaming-" A roar echoed the entire area. "And they have drawn attention to a Minotaur Grimm and a minor breach…"

Cindy peered over the cover, watching a massive bull head ram through buildings with it's massive horns and running over cars as if it was paper, not to mention the buildings are like jenga pieces as chunks of bricks and metal were thrown everywhere. Meanwhile the much smaller grimms were pouring into the city.

"Well… Shit." Both Jay and Cindy said at the same time.

Cindy looked at the tall building where Kelly is standing upon, looking at her for a option. She placed two fingers to her neck, and watched as Kelly relayed the message to Diane.

Diane can be seen deploying something behind Kelly, a small box that began changing into a ammo pack in the shape of a backpack. Kelly shrugged her coat off as Diane hefted it up to her back. It attached with wires and the hook on her back, Kelly can be seen lowering a little with the weight.

The two watched as Kelly's gauntlet shift, becoming as thick as her torso, another handle began forming at the top where she gripped it heavily. The muzzle grew wider and the ammo belt attached itself into the ammunition feed on the side of her arm gun. Kelly's mask slid over her face as she got into a firing stance, knowing her gun is now heavy as she aimed it at the Chimera.

"Ready for firing." Kelly's mechanical voice came onto their earpiece.

"Fire." Cindy commanded.

Kelly braced herself as Ripple Corruption began roaring, the hammer fell onto the first grenade sized cartilage, firing one massive recoil shot. It slammed into the massive grim, causing it to reel back.

Two. Three. Four.

Ding!

The first spent cartridge ejected from the vent, still smoking. The ammunition is special, equipped to fire four charged shots with a revolver technology before the empty shell will eject.

A slow firing gun, but the sheer recoil told its power as Kelly herself struggled with holding- let alone firing it like this. She switched her aim to mowing the first few grimm that was about to jump over the cover of her two teammates.

"Go!" Cindy shouted, she and Jay jumped over the cover to fire the first shot at the unaware and entranced grimm.

Jay began carving into the crowd, swinging left and right, her eyes glowing as she begins going faster and faster.

* * *

Kelly paused her firing and jumped off the building with Diane. She grunted as she landed on the asphalt, the weight of this form already beginning to tire her. She sucked in a breath and hefted the weighty gun to aim at the Chimera's face again and pulled the trigger, once again bracing herself.

About five cartridges out she heard the cry of a marauders coming from her side, She unlocked her brace and stance, shifting her weight around smacking him with her large gun with the sounds of bone crunching under the metal. She planted her foot on the second's chest, pushing her back while trying to keep balance. She spat fire into the third one's face because she cannot find her balance in time and his knife was poised to stab her, she watched as the green flame consume him immediately, spreading like oil on concrete. She counted to three in her head before his screaming stopped and there is nothing but a charred corpse on the ground.

"Guys- it's not only grimm I'm worried about anymore." Kelly rammed another person away.

* * *

"Got any better ideas?" Diane heard Jay's voice as a familiar sensation of savagery tingling at the back of her mind- courtesy of Jay's radiant aura.

"Nope." Diane slashed at the minotaur's charging legs before rolling away- the attack doing little but agitate the bull to dash towards her. "Crap."

Jay quickly intersected, jumping into the air, Falling Sky's teeth grinding against the great keratin horns with enough power to only diverge it's path a inch aside into a brick wall.

"Can you keep it still dammit!" Kelly's shouting came from behind. They both turned to see a breathless Kelly moving her gun arm around to aim at at the minotaur behind the dust it kicked up.

"Sorry," Jay gives her a sheepish grin. "We forgot about you."

Kelly visibly frowned under her mask.

"Well, try moving around with a four-hundred pound gun that's as thick as a Boarbatusk with additional eighty pounds of ammunition on your damn back." Kelly snapped back, agitation laced in her voice. She only sounds like that when she doesn't sleep or is burnt out. "All while keeping alive when mobility is limited."

The minotaur dislodged itself from the wall and turned it's attention to them nostrils flaring, it;s huge body lowered to charge again. Kelly pulled the trigger again, Ripple Corruption spitting out hot shells every second. They can see chunks of the dark flesh being sheared off at a closer range with enough firepower to stage a standstill between the faunus and the grimm. Kelly's stabilizing foot began cracking and digging into the ground.

"Go help Cindy!" Kelly ordered, pulling something on the side of her gun making the barrel rotate for a momentary pause in firing, steam rose into the air in steady wisps from the vents on her shoulder.

Jay and Diane hesitantly nodded, neither willing to leave the now venerable side of Kelly.

* * *

Humans and Grimms?

Cindy growled, firing a shotgun round into a formally dressed man with a dagger before turning to decapitate a Beowulf with one swift stroke.

She looked around in her area of skirmish, every time she turned there would be someone lunging at her, be it Grimm or human. She admit, she is getting tired, more than usual and her chest hurts too. She turned to her right just in time to catch a clawed hand of an ursa with her metal bracer knocking her back two steps before she countered with a heavy slash to it's black underside.

She stopped to catch a quick breath before hearing the footsteps behind her. She swing's Mourning Dawn upwards.

But her arm felt like lead, or did time slow?

Two white bullets struck the lunging woman, the rounds going through flesh like tissue paper. She turned to see Jay and Diane running towards her.

"Is it me or does it feel heavy?" Jay panted slightly, wiping sweat off her forehead, her topknot a bit messy. "As in my arms are boulders."

"Ditto." Diane looked a bit tired, not because she is the one who regularly wields a claymore into combat.

"Let's just get this over with." Cindy hissed watching as the minotaur in the distance fall to the ground as a mass of shredded muscle and bone. Kelly collapsed on one knee, her shoulders heaving as the backpack detached falling to the ground while Ripple Corruption shifted back into it's default gauntlet form.

* * *

They lost count of the time they spent in the plaza, by the time they looked up, the buildings already cast a morning glow on the body ridden ground. They remembered they were here in what probably was the evening of the day before. They carefully walked amongst the bodies of civilians and Grimm alike, giving them brief tapps with weapon or foot to ensure that they are indeed dead.

They were sore, bleeding and utterly exhausted but nevertheless glad to be alive. Cindy's bracer was cut through by an hand ax, cutting deep into her forearm rendering her grip useless. Jay's face had blood running after she got smacked in the head by a rock. Diane fared better, only measly cuts here and there. Kelly, showing no visible wounds but showed exhaustion by the sluggish way she walked and how her much sweat was running down her face and how flushed her face was once she ripped the mask off her face.

And there is always dealing with the aftermath of any combat situation.

Kelly looked at each of the humans they have slained in self defense- all indeed human- even though they may be missing a head or limbs, she can tell by scent of the blood.

Diane carefully looked around the breach in the towering, three feet thick natural barrier that protected the city's edges from the outside forces of Grimm.

Jay and Cindy are helping the civilians out of the shelter while blocking them off from the bodies and other hazardous places. The local police and medical forces were called to the scene by Cindy to set up camps and ready medical supplies. None of them questioned of their delay instead felt relief of the welcoming sight of help.

* * *

They regrouped after several more minutes of examination, the people ushered them into the medical tent first, thanking them profusely for saving them from the minor invasion.

"Sorry it took us a long time," The police chief said to them as they had their injuries tended to. "We were caught in a delay."

"I'm hoping it is nothing like this?" Cindy asked before hissing as alcohol was dripped into her deep wound. She bit her lip and sucked in deep breaths.

"Sadly it was like this, but not as bad as the situation here." He sighed, pulling out a clipboard and handing it to her. "Several were officers on duty, but most were the attacking civilians."

They briefly skimmed over the report, taking in key details before handing it back to him. Ten officers dead, thirty civilians wounded, fifty dead. Fifth and Howard Street.

"We're investigating this at the moment, it may have been the Whi-"

"No it's not." Kelly interjected him, watching as the nurse put in acupuncture needles into her arm, shoulder and back.

"How are you so sure?" He inquired, walking a bit closer.

"The blood of humans are more… bland so to speak." She looked at him, her tongue flicking once. "Faunus blood have a more tangy scent."

Silence hangs in the air, only interrupted by the nurses and their medical applications.

"Sir, is there by any chance of any human cults or gangs present in the area?" Jay asked, her hand tapped the table.

"I... " They can see him looking confused for a moment. "In fact, someone asked for these files earlier, saying he is of the same special forces as you guys are-"

"Wait, asked you?" Diane looked confused as he is. "But no one in the R.F.P besides us and team EBNY are in Vale, the rest are not in this investigation nor in the specific area of Vale."

"Yeah, Team SLTE and VRDN are still in the forest, MLCT is in the wealthy areas, HLTP at docks and EBNY just arrived at Beacon." Jay read off her scroll for confirmation. "No one has been in this area yet, MLCT is supposed to be here the day after today."

"Did he have any identification marks like us?" Kelly motioned to her left pauldron, the white chalice with wings printed on the dark metal. "We all have them located on our left shoulder."

"Yes he did, but in another location," The officer replied. "Then he just up and left quickly without a word."

Kelly looked at Cindy, who looked at Jay to Daine as they all put two and two together.

"They don't want us finding out." Jay commented. "And that's a good thing because we know we're on the right track."


	10. 10- Innocent or Guilty

**I'm just doing this because of the spoilers I saw. (Guilty) But this chapter is a bit focus on ROCK more than CTDK I apologize, it's for a reason**

 **I honestly don't know what Episode 6 is about yet, I'm not a sponsor.**

* * *

 _ **One Week Ago**_

 _The sun peaked over the mountains beyond the horizon, casting the sky into a beautiful sunrise-if the sun is not blinding them. The proud prestigious combat school of Beacon glistened proudly over Vale giving a feeling of safety and might._

 _"I'm afraid I don't understand sir." Cindy crossed her arms across her chest eyebrows furrowed. "I fail to see what makes us so interesting. We just follow orders and execute them with the best of our abilities."_

 _CTDK stood in Ozpin's office, each equally confused of why only they were called here and not everyone else. Ozpin has not said anything for those said few minutes with the back of the chair towards them, but perpetual silence hung in the air like smoke, making them uncomfortable. Minutes went by with the ticking of the large gears in the room._

 _He stayed silent for a bit longer before his chair began churning turning him to face them._

 _"You have heard of us discussing about a Guardian to the people yes?" He began, eyes trained at them. "Then you may have an idea why you're here."_

 _They looked at one another quickly before nodding._

 _"Sir with all due respect, we all as in the entire R.F.P decided we would not be such candidate of interest for a Guardian." Jay spoke up to him._

 _"And your reasons being?" Ozpin asked, taking a sip from his favorite mug._

 _"Our presence entice fear rather than the feeling of content, besides that we were trained to strike fear and be seen as heroic… " Jay trailed off her explanation, looking at the ground before sighing. "It's always safe to say to have someone from a combat school to take the role, to be looked upon and grant them hope, not some secret special operatives that knows battle tactics more than their own people."_

 _"As much as we- the RFP or just us would be honored to be one, it's best to find someone that can be entrusted." Cindy placed a hand on Jay's shoulder sharing a concerned look._

 _"That's quite an observation you have there Delun," The silver-haired man slowly stood up from his seat, walking towards the full body window behind them, facing the shimmering mountains in the distance. "Though there is another reason why I called you here."_

 _He motioned them with his hand to join him and the rising view. They looked over the cliff towards the land beyond them, highlighted in a orangish hue, the calm waters reflected the forest beyond it. Everything seemed at peace, no movements, nothing on the waters. Just silence and gentle swaying of the trees in the light wind._

 _CTDK joined beside him as ordered, taking in the early morning view, entranced by the fall beauty._

 _"I want to talk about the Hollow Mountain you discovered on your last mission." He said suddenly, making them snap out of their stupor._

 _"Sir?" Diane tilted her head in acknowledgment. "What about it?"_

 _The Headmaster only leaned against his cane and takes another sip from his mug._

 _"What you discovered is the remains of the ancient temple for the Order of the Eclipse."_

 _"The Order of the what?" Cindy asked._

 _"The Order of the Eclipse, before mankind dominated this planet- they called this planet their home, a ancient legion of many that littered the stars and beyond like Cyres Fulgrin, queen of the ice planet of Scyrus." The table lit up, creating a black flag, trimmed with silver edges and heralded around a silver quarter moon that covered half the three claw marks._

 _The table shifted to one of the models possibly taken from the expedition. It was a bipedal machine that made the Paladins look smaller and less armed. The box like body was carved with runes of unknown tongue, one of the arms a fist. The other what seemed like a cannon. A mask that represent a skull covered the face, settled between it's hunchback shoulders._

 _"None of the best of dust, semblance or anything could breach the barrier surrounding it." Ozpin takes another sip. "Or awaken the machines inside or move them."_

 _"And several years ago, team ROCK made the discovery deep within the ocean- two ships that rivaled Ironwood's own flagship in size. Inside carried two hundred warriors each of the lost time." Ozpin paused briefly. "There was an invasion on their mission of White Fang, and during the battle, the ships went online suddenly when Cyres sent out a psychic blast, causing all four hundred of the ancient warriors to awake and ultimately awaken their leader- Mordred."_

 _Ozpin pointed at the shimmering in the sky._

 _"There they are, Leviathan and Vengeance- their ships." As if on cue, the two ship's cloaking turned off, revealing the titanic bullet shaped aircrafts hovering high in the morning sky, A silver eclipse and three clawed herald proudly presented on it's hull. It's black unknown metal absorbing the sun rays before it flickered away in static._

 _"Are they here to cause trouble too?" Kelly asked._

 _The Headmaster shook his head._

 _"That's for ROCK to answer. I don't know their motivation."_

* * *

 _Presently_

 _Diane sighed, leaning back against the bench, her body sore and winded from the ordeal. Kelly is busy hammering away at the mini workbench at the edge of the training room, sparks flying as her hammer struck the metal of Ripple Corruption. Cindy and Jay were busy firing at targets in the distance, training with their non-dominant hands. Cindy don't need to worry much about aim with the spread fire she always have in the drum magazines. Jay- not so much, her bullets tore anything that is not attached to a pillar with a horrible aim._

 _"How's the upgrade doing Kelly?" Diane walked over to the taller girl who just slipped the entire piece of armor/weapon on her right arm and is now testing the individual digit and joints._

 _"Not…" She turned around, the gauntlet shifting into it's third, heavy gun from. She huffed slightly as the gears and micro engine cranked to life. "Not bad, can you insert the new rounds for me?"_

 _Kelly motioned her head towards the workbench, one of her ammunition belt held all but three white tipped grenade sized shells. Diane paused and looked at the components, how a miniature hammer mechanism sat in front of the propellant base and behind the main charge. Four more charges sits in front of it and rested the four large .632 calibre bullets that is well known in the RFP to tear concrete like plastic and bare flesh and bone like glass._

 _Diane hurried over to Kelly's side, sliding open the manual hatch that sits on the side away from the faunus. She slipped the first cartridge in and slid the notch forward, sending a slight whirr as the gun began humming- meaning ammunition is loaded and ready._

 _"I'd step back, because I don't know the effects of this." Kelly warned before her mask drew over her face._

 _Diane trusted her judgment and takes a few long strides back, never taking her eyes off her. The familiar sounds of three clicks reach her ears as Kelly leans forward a little. She her then lower slightly and before she knows anything else, the first bullet rocketed out, jerking Kelly back slightly before the second through fourth sped out in relatively quick succession before the empty shell popped out, red and steaming._

 _The target of metal, concrete and a keratin were punctured through by the first three bullets before the rest of the rounds shredded the tough target until nothing but a wood stub is left of the target._

 _"Wow." Diane can only say as she sees the fate of the target. Kelly stood straight again, her gun shifting back into its gauntlet from._

 _"I'm surprised this worked." Kelly patted her weapon. Diane absentmindedly takes the oversized armored hand in hers and started playing with the individual digits._

 _"Umm-" Kelly's voice wavered slightly at the sudden contact. And that's how Diane figured out that this weapon can feel things touching it._

 _"Hey guys, we should get going otherwise we'll miss the match!" Jay shouted across the room to them._

 _"Coming!" The two ran after them._

* * *

 _ **In the Headmaster's Office**_

A large humanoid machine towered over the tallest student in the four schools. His mortal body has long since been replaced by metal, wires and gears. The mythical warhammer is as black as the night, etched with red glowing runes that stood as tall as it's wielder. The panoply the machine adorned is technologically beyond mankind's own. Unlike the rest of the shown warriors, his armor is more decorated, seals and inscription written in otherwordly tongue, a silver laurel sat on his single eyed helmet.

A cloak that is materialized out of shadows held by a brooch of his Order sat proudly across his shoulders.

In his right hand held the presumed mythological warhammer, God Feller.

He looked at the people in the room, the one eye shifting back and forth.

"I hate to be rude, but I question your sand all in this room's judgment on this case Ozpin." Mordred commented. Apparently he was here the entire time, observing everything while being hidden in the shadows on the room at any time.

"And I'm surprised that you can be still for three days and not have anyone notice you." Qrow responded to the machine.

"Unlike normal humans-we don't have aura." His gravelly voice cut through the gears of the room.

"So why are you here then." Ironwood walked closer to him.

Mordred rotates his body, looking at each of them in the eyes briefly.

"Beware, for your trust may prove fatal. Tread lightly with caution and don't take any steps back."

He paused for a second, optics narrowing slightly.

"Your temperance in the Temple of Kain and removal of the dark artifact, the Tome of Demons- I shall warn you that you that it has been misused and now it has taken attention of the fear in this place."

With that he melted into his own shadow and was gone from the room.

* * *

Needless to say, not just RWB or CTDK's jaw dropped in horror, but Mel and Cyres (who just sucked in a quick breath) did as well.

Yang launched the last hit. And there were security around her.

"Something is amiss." They all barely heard the whisper on the seats down from them. It was Akaia whispering to Rio. Her younger, heavily armored brother is here too. "Did you see the sudden image and hesitation?"

"A flicker but nothing more," He replied then turning to Cyres. "Did you feel anything?"  
Cyres nodded slightly, but a bit hesitant. She can always feel disturbance in the ethereal realm.

"I guess Mordred was right." Cyres whispered back to Akaia.

Akaia melted into their shadows with an affirmative nod.

The rest of ROCK looked towards the other side in the back of the arena where they draw no attention, noticing the tall mechanical commander look at them for a second before turning on his heel and walked away, his retinue consisting of the six veteran bodyguards, the Forgemaster and the raven that is perched on his high shoulders followed him out with Akaia towards the back.

* * *

 _ **In the Fortress of Altimar**_

Mordred sat upon his throne of iron and silver, God Feller gripped loosely in his right hand. ROCK watching the video of the match with him, all equally mortified, except Mordred who chose to show any expression.

"Yang… She would never do that…" Mel was in disbelief and the rest of her team had to agree on that.

"What should we do?" Cyres asked as she placed a hand on Mel's shoulder, trying to comfort the youngest of the group. "Mel wants to go and prove her innocence."

Akaia looked at Rio and then to Cyres and Mel before turning to the old warrior.

"I'm afraid we can't get involved." Mordred spoke up. "There is a plan set into motion long ago and it's starting to bloom."

"What plan?" Rio asked. "What is going on?"

Mordred leaned forward on his throne, his one eye trained on the young prince.

"Argus has foreseen during our stasis that great strife will befall two kingdoms. Vale and Atlas." He explained, old joints creaking. "A path where our involvement will cause worldwide destruction."

"And you didn't warn them?" Mel voiced her concern, looking into the single eyed founder.

"It's best if I or we do not tamper with inevitable fates of kingdoms." He responded with his old, dull voice. "What is the point in wasting our breath when they fail to listen? That is also how the lost the moon in the war long ago, we've tried, but their thick skulls ."

"Should've we help settle matters before they arise? They fear us. We should use it to cast out own verdicts." Akaia spoke up, her armored body creaking slightly.

"Humans fear what they don't know." Mordred responded almost immediately. "And a million year old legion that is not of this planet can cause panic as we are more advanced than them."

"But." Mel's voice cut through his words. "You never said anything about our involvement."

Argus, who was beside them the entire time, leaned down to whisper in Mordred's ear before leaning back.

After several minutes of thought, Mordred hesitantly nodded. And ROCK cheered, eager to help out their friends.

"Fine, do as you wish, I can see no consequences in your actions." He leaned back on his seat. "But I will reveal who these "infiltrators" are…"

He beckoned them close and whispered their names to them. With understanding nods, they departed.

"Akaia." Mordred called out to his current commander. Akaia paused and turned to him, waiting for his wise commands.

"I leave the Fourth Company to you and your team."

"Thank you." Akaia walked off to rejoin their team as they waited for her at the giant brass double doors.

"So here's the plan- we go in and blow it up Mission Impossible style. " Mel announced bubbling in excitement. "Break open the cell-"

"No, we're not jailbreaking anyone with such a rash idea." Cyres chastised her.

"Well, Mel may have a point." Rio nodded as they walked down the torch-lit bronze halls.

"You best be kidding me." Cyres looked appalled that Rio, the logical one would agree. She looked at Akaia for sanity.

Akaia nodded to Mel's idea.

"See even Akaia agrees!" Mel made her point.

Cyres groaned, wondering how she got into a group of idiots who actions are worse that what they just watched.

"Actually, we're going to go visit a certain team first." Akaia said to them.

"RWBY?" Rio asked as they passed by the Fourth Company, all two hundred mysterious warriors standing attention for them. They paused before the hatch of their personal airship.

"Nope. CTDK." Akaia replies. She turns to the pilot. "Take us to Beacon!"

* * *

 _ **In the dorms of Beacon**_

Jay threw her scroll against the wall, the video instantly ended in a static flash.

"I don't believe this." Jay paced around their room, eyes shifting between blue and green. "She is innocent, I saw the video replay is different from all we say from the tournament."

"We all did, I snuck the tape remember." Cindy tapped her foot impatiently. "And I have to agree, Yang is innocent."

"What about our current mission? " Diane asked, pushing herself off the wall. "We still need to investigate the entity Kelly found in the mines."

Cindy was about to respond before Kelly's voice interrupted her.

"That can wait or we can try and get another team trying this." Kelly suggested as she tapped keys on her scroll.

"Or," Cindy started. "We can have a meeting to discuss this issue as we look into it together."

* * *

 _ **Things in the RFP is going to be heated up~**_


	11. 11- New Divide

**I blame finals.  
**

 **Warning- one F word.**

* * *

 _ **In the Council Room**_

Uproar grew on two different factional views, pitting friends against friends. Verbal debates shook the whole room as tables cracked and profanities happened here and there. The large room echoed with their roars of justice and actions.

They were all divided, brothers and sisters who were once so close now pitted with one another in an escalating debate of the match to a near physical one.

On one side stood CTDK and EBNY. On the other side stands VRDN, and MLCT.

The neutral and pending are teams SLTE and HLTP.

Until weapons ended up being drawn because the teams on either side are on equal grounds.

"Perhaps it's just best if we actually take frame by frame." Nicole suggested. "It would make outer lives and judgment easier."

"It takes too much time." Mike retorted.

"Yes because you rather spend all your time with hookers and not your team, nor mission." Emily added in, watching a scarlet shade take over his face.

Jakob takes the first swing at Cindy who just ducked the large fists and launched her own, striking him across the face with the force of a Boarbatusk spin dashing into their target. Jakob staggered under the surprisingly harsh blow, and glared at her.

Team HLTP opted out right away, deciding they they will have no say in this matter altogether and try to quell the rising situation. With HLTP being the true neutral of the Remnant Frontier Patrol, they always try to defuse any heated situation.

But today is not in their favor.

"Guys, we should all take a-" Penelope was knocked aside by a large ax as VRDN made the first team strike to the opposing side.

"I will not stand idly by when people who sympathize this behavior stand with us." Jakob swings his battle ax at Cindy.

Emily and Brenda intersected for their friend with their own weapons, the rest of EBNY and CTDK followed suit.

"Neither will we." Emily pushed him back, slashing him quickly with her razor edged sword creating a thin line of red across his chest.

"Guys enough!" Hanna jumped between the two leaders in vain effort to calm them as her pleas fell on deaf ears.

And then all hell broke loose when SLTE decided to side with the guilty side. Weapons drawn and anger seething, they all charged against the lesser side, backing them all up against the furthest walls. A brawl broke out among them without reason. This wasn't their usual friendly team brawls- this is a actual one where anyone can be killed.

"What is up with them? This never happened before- even in the past events like this." Emily whispered to Cindy as Diane released her semblance, covering the eight of them in the orange hexagonal patterned shield.

"Don't know," Emily muttered, eyes shifting around, Tryygr cawed on her shoulder. Her eyes were solely trained on the emblem on their left shoulders.

They were fading.

Emily's eyes widened at the view from Tryygr, there is no way in a thousand years for their markings to just fade out, they are made with dust, and it won't fade so simply. Unless…

Her vision shifted to an approaching black gunship.

"We have to move, it's too late we can't reason with them." Emily looked at Ying, and made a motion with her hand. Ying drew a canister from her belt.

"Wait, what?" Cindy barely voiced before the canister exploded in a blinding white flash. A hand gripped hers and dragged her along.

"I'll explain later," Emily and the rest of her team dragged CTDK out right on time as the ship hovered a few feet from the ground.

The hatch opened to reveal ROCK and four other heavily armored warriors standing next to them, their equally massive guns roaring to life as it spat out hot shells to the pursuing groups behind them. One of them had a large glowing blue gun of some sort, glowing brightly for a second before shooting out a glob of glowing light blue plasma glob that detonated on the ground, sending a heatwave from such a small blast around them, the grass around it within a two yard radius to lose life and become black instantly.

Cyres and Mel sent a titanic wall of fire and ice behind them, aiming to halt their pursuers momentarily.

"Get on!" Akaia shouted under the cover of the three heavy support as they try to keep the other teams at bay.

They wasted no time boarding the gunship. The hatch closed behind them as they sped off, the ship cloaked itself into the night once more.

* * *

They watched as the ship flew off and disappear from sight altogether as the ice shattered and the fire died down. Jakob watched as HLTP disappear into the forest as he turned back to the sky.

"They got away…" He hissed as a familiar sounds of high heels to concrete came behind them all.

"Oh don't worry just yet about the loss." familiar gold eyes peered in the dark of the night.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Jakob stepped back slightly from her.

That is before alarms began sounding throughout the city.

* * *

 _ **Inside the gunship Hadrian**_

The inside of the ship is spacious unlike the bullheads they've taken to missions. There were floating skulls going about, scanning them or writing with their tiny mechanical arms. Even though it is all metal with seats, the engine roar nor its vibrations cannot be heard or felt.

What felt odd is that inside were at least six more large, heavily armored soldiers sitting on one side of the gunship. They did not hold the massive guns like the four did, instead they held guns that is too large for any man to hold without it being mounted on a tripod. One of them in particular had a white helmet, and more decorated armor than the rest. In their hand held a long silver sword and the other a pistol the size of a sub machine gun.

"What's going on, what did you see?" Cindy asked Emily. "What do you mean that the marks are fading."

"Our markings of the Frontier are laced with dust, meaning that they don't fade even in the worst conditions." Emily explained to her. "The only time it can be removed or erased is when one person denounce themselves or-"

"Someone with high enough dust skill can remove them." Cindy finished for her.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Brenda's brash voice pipped up beside them.

"It means, someone coaxed them to their side not too long ago for it to happen." Ying pretty much figured it out for them.

"So you're saying that someone planned this beforehand?" Jay asked Ying as the slender girl nodded in affirmation. "

"Correct, whoever planned this knew our teams well enough to be able to get them on either side and I don't think they know Hanna's team is a neutral in all this." Ying tinkered with her recurve bow. She was about to saw more when the pilot's voice rang through the whole, mainly to Akaia.

"My lord, there seems to be an invasion of some kind, targets are en route from the forest!"

ROCK quickly looked out the windows and at the carnage below. EBNY and CTDK followed suit. There is swarms of moving red eyes in the dark of the forest. They can see the trees shake in their wake, a few Nevermores flew over the invisible ship, rocking them slightly as the flock passed.

"Holy-"

"Shit, again?"

Akaia turned away from the window towards the squad in front of her.

"Secure the area." She commanded.

"At once." The ten armored giants unbuckled their harness and one by one disappeared into their shadows. Akaia turned to Cyres and Mel.

"You know what to do."

"Aye aye captain!" A large grin spreads over Mel's face as the side hatch opened. Mel jumped out first, her fire wings bursting to life as she descended into the fray in a ball of fire- setting a good portion of the forest on fire. Again.

"This is the fifth time this week." Cyres groaned in annoyance, immediately sheeting everything in ice until the last of the flames died down and only a certain moving flame speck remained.

Cyres whistled loudly, even though it was drowned by the wind entering the aircraft. She then jumped out, landing on the back of the mighty ice wyvern as they targeted the first few Nevermores in the sky in a flurry of ice, talons and lances.

Akaia and Rio turned to the eight of them.

"Do you have any parachutes in this ship?" Brenda jokingly asked Rio who just shook his head slightly before placing his plumed helmet on.

"Nope."

Shadows enveloped them all as they can feel the wind rushing around them and then sharp jagged movements, tumbling in the void before all unceremoniously landing on their rear ends as they were thrown from the dark portal of the siblings shadows.

"How do you even do that?" Kelly asked, shaking her head to keep her world from spinning.

"Practice." Akaia replied throwing a beowolf over her shoulders as she spun around, Behemoth and Leviathan screeching to life as the blades shot from it's housing, enveloped in black fire as Akaia brought it down on its first victim.

Rio spun Vanquisher to life, the dual end halberd had white flames lapping at the blades as he spins it around, slashing through the grimm surrounding him with ease.

"Just get going." Akaia ordered.

They take no time to stand by and watch, each team dispersing into the moving tree line.

* * *

Cindy's ax cleaved through a creeps head, the body turning to smoke before turning around to fired a solid slug into a beowulf that tried to sneak behind her. She pumped her beloved weapon once as a roar came from behind her. Rolling away, she fired a grazing shot at the large creep cursing at herself for the poor accuracy of a shot. The grimm hissed and smashed it's bone covered head at her chest, knocking the wind out of her and send her on her back.

Her chest hurts from the blow, enough to block her senses for the second. They are all trained to take more injuries than students at the schools can and supposed to heal faster as well. Wasn't the injury from last week supposed to be pain free by now?

"Ow…" She groaned, her vision returning right when the bipedal grimm is about to run over her prone from-

Only for it to be sawed in half down the middle quite brutally, courtesy of Jay. The maniacal girl made short work of the grimm around them to create a grimm-free breathing room.

"You alright, boss?" Jay asked with concern laced in her voice, Falling Sky drew to a hum as she reached out with her free hand. "You zoned out for a second there."

"Yeah just…" Cindy takes the offered hand, helping her onto her feet. She had to make up an excuse to stop the girl from worrying. "Wondering how and all this is a part of something bigger."

She prayed that Jay will buy this partial lie.

"Fair enough." She let out an internal sigh of relief as Jay shrugged. "Check on Kelly and Diane?"

Cindy nodded and followed behind Jay.

* * *

Wham!

Diane's head snapped back from the unexpected blow from a boarbatusk. She also feels the wind being expelled from her lungs as she hit a nearby half-burned tree stump. She shakes her head before spinning to her feet, her claymore cutting through the boarbatusk like warm butter.

Where the in the name of the broken moon is Kelly.

The sounds of a loud crack and green fire lit up the sky the next second.

"Found her." Diane grinned, deflecting a claw with her bracer and thrust upwards through the skull of her attacker.

As if the night is dark enough with the partial moon- it somehow got a bit more darker.

"Snake incoming!" She vaguely hears Kelly as she sees a giant freaking snake the size of a redwood tree airborne above her and then descended towards her at a rapid pace.

"Well fuck you too Kelly." Diane jum-dives out of the way as the adult king taijitu flattened the rocks and trees under it. If she did not move- she would've been flattened.

Kelly landed between her and the still recovering snake, her mask unlocked as she flicked her tongue in her face.

"Not sorry." Kelly rolled her eyes as she wraps her more muscular arm around the thick neck of the snake grimm, held secured with her knife jabbed into the thick scales. Ripple Corruption shifted into it's cannon from already pressed against its bony head. It tried shaking the faunus off, but it couldn't do much as it's head bursted into bits and pieces across the burnt clearing.

Some of the 'Grimm bits' landed on her clothes, with most of it giving Kelly a new paintjob.

"Ugh, ew Grimm guts." Diane looked at the disintegrating black splotches on her.

* * *

Akaia felt the familiar rumbling of Goliaths as she finished her last opponent with decapitating the ursa. She looked over to the rest of her team, they were looking back at her with the same expression.

"Any idea where and how far?" Cyres asked, sheathing her sword hilt to her belt.

"It's near our Glenn camp." Rio looked at his holographic scanner. "About two klicks."

"Meaning one click from the camp." Akaia nodded slightly. She looked for what she thinks is the northeast.

"We should warn them to take them all out b-" Cyres started before being cut off by Akaia.

"You heard what Mordred said, we can't interfere with this." Akaia turned to face the knightly queen.

"He never said anything about dampening the effect though?" Mel offered, promptly kicking Cyres out of the way, sending the ice queen into the ashen dirt below. Cyres pushed herself off the ground and shoved the fire demigod to trip over a rock.

"Mel, why do you always go around the rules?" Rio crossed his armored arms at her.

"I mrph pur mph." She said through the soot.

"Yeah… we can't understand you." Rio watched as her head lifted off the ground.

"I said 'I like to do that.'." She repeated, spitting out a mouthful of soot at Cyres, who made a disgusted noise and knocked Mel away with a ice bolt.

"Hey, this is a new robe!" She glared at the smaller girl.

"Hush my child, you can wash it off." Mel laid on the ground, arms crossed over her head as Cyres stormed over.

"Yes, I am a child because I'm almost five years older than you, you uncouth midget." Cyres said sarcastically.

Akaia rolled her unseen eyes and activated her intercom within her helmet.

"On the other hand, one of you go call up Cindy and let her know what's going on while I call Argus to be ready."

* * *

 **Vol 3 just keeps getting better and better!**


	12. 12- Visions, Prophets- WHAT!

**This alludes to the most recent episode**

 **Blood and gore (descriptive warning)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Akaia turned around to see a Atlas Soldier lying on the ground, shaken up by the ordeal. He didn't look injured at all, although his weapon was a few feet from him.

He tried to move away as Akaia approached, her steps cracked the derbies and bones under her mechanical form. The bullets from the gun barely scratched the thick ceramite platings of her armor, much less annoy her.

"You're not going anywhere." Akaia chuckled, grabbing the barrel of the gun, twisting it until it looked like a half pretzel. The soldier turned and try to crawl as fast as he can from her. Her clawed hand grabbed his leg, dragging the smaller human and pulled him up to eye level. Her retinal scanners doing quick work of her target.

Her gray eyes narrowed as she noticed a soft red blink on the soldier's helmet.

"I know this recorder is working," She ignored the cries of the man as she crushed whatever is grasped in her hand. In this case, it's his leg, she can feel the bone and metal slowly being crunched under her mechanical grip. "But watch your back, because the shadows will move when you're not looking."

She slammed him back onto the concrete ground, knowing he is still alive. She didn't care that the camera is still recording. She ignored his screams and pleads as the sounds of cracking armor, breaking bones and ripping flesh fill the air like an daemonic mantra.

With a jerk of her arm, she pulled his head off his shoulders with a sickening crunch.

"Your move, Fall." She said calmly even though her armor is painted scarlet now. She clenched her fist, the helmet bursted in her hand, bits of the remains of the skull and its contents dripped from her hand.

It's been too long since she has been able to enjoy something like this. She hears the footsteps of her teammates and brother walking up behind her.

"Always favoring the fear tactics I see." Cyres commented, walking up to the blood soaked armor. "Ugh, you need to wash that blood off, it'll ruin the polish I put on."

"Three seconds in and she's already hounding you about your armor sanitary level." Mel giggled, smacking Rio's shoulder with enough force to stagger the five hundred pound armored shadow prince.

"Or should I say your body ~" Mel winked at them. "Or her nice, big mechanical-"

And found herself pinned to the wall by six ice lances. She gave off a nervous chuckle as she looks up to see a very amused Akaia- and a very angry Cyres.

"Melanie, I swear to my throne if you finish that sentence. So help me that I don't impale you with my sword."Cyres's flushed face is glaring daggers into Mel's soul, eyes glowing and Akaia is staring in amusement of the situation.

Mel turned to Rio with a sheepish grin.

"Hey Rio-"

"No, I'm not helping you."

* * *

Cindy and the others looked around the camp, watching as the formidable armored warriors of the shadows walk through the Grimm horde, never suffering a blow or fail a repeated fighting pattern of slice, shoot or kick away.

"Do you think they can take care of this by themselves?" Jay looked to her for her opinion as the warrior with a sword sliced off a Goliath's head.

"Oh, we're more than capable." A more whispy voice came behind them all, scaring them. Jay jumped into Kelly's arms as a garbling mess and Diane shot up faster than she would in a firefight. "... my apologies."

They turned around to see the familiar thin person that appeared with Mordred the first they met. Unlike the rest of the armored warriors, his armor seemed more elegant, clad in black and silver armor over a rune etched gray robe. The armor is more of plates covered vital areas instead of all encasing the wearer in all thick metal, but it looks different from what Cyres wears over her robes. His hands held a halberd or spear hybrid of some sort. There are runic carvings running along the edge of the weapon while the halberd glowed a soft white.

Diane is the first to recover from her shock and straighten her shirt of wrinkles and clear her throat.

"R-right, you guys are more advanced and prepared than us." She looked at the smooth surface of Argus's helmet- assuming that's where his eyes are.

He simply lifts a hand in a gesture for understanding.

"Old but not obsolete." He turns around slightly to stab his spear in a Beowulf's head that came unnoticed behind them. "Observe as I take down the Nevermore."

"What Never-" Kelly started before a screech filled the gunshot filled air. "Oh."

"Oh indeed Kelly…" As he predicted a Nevermore of great size flew into the sky above them. Argus looked at the larger foe, his runic carvings on his armor and weapons glowed white and energies condensed around his free hand.

The Nevermore descended towards the band of armored warriors behind them over the ridge.

He shoots his hand out, palm open. Eldrich powers shoots out of his fingertips towards the bird. The moment the white bolts hit the black feathers the Nevermore halted, quickly torn apart by the energies of lost time.

"As I was saying." He turned to look at their gawking faces.

"Oh, before I forget, Mordred needs your attention at Mount Glenn." He speaks softly, handing them each a palm sized white stone with a single rune etched into the smooth surface. "Also you may want to clear a path there. It will be heavily overrun by the Grimm going to the source of fear which you know by now."

"Right…" Cindy enunciated, pocketing the tune in her pocket. "How do we find him or it again?"

"Look for a giant hammer wielding machine that will be throwing snakes in the air as if he is bench pressing them or sitting on a throne of mangled bodies." He replied curtly, his spear impaling a Creep through its open mouth before exploding in a flash of white energy. "Now carry on for my lord's patience is on edge."

Cindy nodded and turned to her team.

"To Glenn I guess." She looked at the Grimm-torn hill before them.

Looking briefly at each of them, she inserted a larger clip into Mourning Dawn. Diane shifted Bleak Dusk into a favorable melee from. Jay, for the sake of being able to kill things decided to shift Falling Sky into its true, double chained from. Kelly reloaded her dust revolver and Diane help to insert a drum magazine into Ripple Corruption's gun slot.

"Let's go get EBNY."

* * *

 **A nearly good hour, spent ammo and cuts everywhere later…**

As Argus said, it is not too hard to spot Mordred lounging on top of a throne made of undecayed Grimm's of all sizes. His mythical hammer is grasped tightly in his hand as his retuine of six stands before them, including Argus.

But the farseer and Mordred were deep in conversation with hushed voices.

"...its for the best we don't tell them." The old commander spoke, looking briefly at his hand.

"You know I can predict fates Mordred, but we can't send them out- spare them the tears Mord-" Argus looked guilty for a brief second before noticing their arrival. "Oh, you've finally arrived."

"How did you get here so fast?" Diane sucked in deep breaths, exhausted from the tiring battle to the meeting place. She cradled her bleeding arm, which is still leaking some blood.

"Got caught in some hinderance I presume?" Argus looked at each of them closely. He looked a second longer at Kelly, who seemed to fare better than the rest.

"Quiet you." Cindy muttered, wiping blood from her eye. "Why did you want us to meet here anyways?"

Mordred and Argus stayed silent for a moment as if waiting for a response from someone.

"For variety of reasons, mainly because we would need to forge an alliance if we were to face a common threat." A mechanical voice came behind them followed by heavy footsteps. Akaia, Rio, Mel and Cyres followed closely. I her clawed hands held a still dripping severed head of an Atlas soldier.

"About time you joined us Akaia." Mordred stood from his throne of corpses, slowly walking down to meet the mechanical younger leader. Akaia kneeled down before him. "What do you report?"

"Worse situation than we thought, my lord." Akaia stood again, presenting him the grim trophy. "It's unfortunate that Cinder do have some of _her_ powers, but something is amiss in the lights of this."

Mordred and Argus briefly glanced at one another.

"So I've witnessed it beforehand." Another voice came behind them, one of Mordred's advisors. He had a rusty red armor as opposed to the others, except one pauldron bared their legion's heraldry while the other had a mechanical gear that had half a mechanical skull and the other is a menacing grinning skull. His hand grasped a tall halberd that the blade looked like the half gear on his pauldron.

"What do you mean Forgemaster Gaheris?" Rio asked, looking at the red armored crafter who just shook his armored head.

"I met her a couple years back, she wandered into the Fortress where I was busy upkeep Prometheus and our other war machines from their long slumber. Argus messaged me a few months of their predicted awakening." Gaheris motioned towards Mordred and the rest of the retuine around them.

"But Ozpin told us that the Order was only resurrected a few years back." Brenda interrupted Gaheris, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "But you sound like you've awaken a long time before."

"About that…" Mel gives a guilty giggle. "We kinda distorted time a little when we jumped out of the quantum molecular warp."

"Quantum what?" Diane looked at the legendary team before them, all standing and adverting their glances at them. None of them willing to answer her questions.

"Interdimensional travel." Gaheris' extra arms on his back whirred around him as he crossed his arms over his thick armored chest. "I built one of them about a hundred years back."

"We are from a time where Cinder went through with her plans and well… Remnant is forever lost in eternal war and suffering." Rio began, removing his helmet. "We with whatever was left of the hunters and huntress' formed a coup d'état."

"Did you guys win?" Nicole asked the prince, who only shook his head sadly.

"No, we had to bail, we went through the warp just as it closed and," he motioned his arm around. "We're here where you still exist and Cinder in in the middle of it. And kinda altered time a little"

"And I'm afraid to say that it is repeating itself." Cyres concluded.

The two teams stayed silent, letting that sink in while Mordred turns to his bodyguards and gives them orders to thin the Grimm and help the others back at the camp.

"Anyways, this young lady asked me for some 'mechanical help' as in trying to get the STC for the standard Mark X armor patterns."

"STC?" Ying asked, tapping things onto her scroll.

"Standard Template Construct or blueprints." He explained pulling one out, the small plate displayed a holographic diagram of Akaia's armor and body structure. "And the is of course, Akaia's reconstructed body."

The diagram exploded into individual components, naming parts and mini models of what the movements would look like if it were to move. He sighed and closed the holograph, slipping it back into his armored belt pouch.

"So this Cinder girl just stole one of your templates," Jay crossed her arms and leaned on her sword. "Sounds like shitty security to me."

"Jay…" Cindy muttered, nudging her foot.

The four warriors stood silent, not affected by the insult one bit, but turned to Mordred.

"I wish it was that." Mordred sighs slightly. Gaheris gives a small nod and a portal opening up behind him, courtesy of Argus. "I fear of using Prometheus on this world."

"Prometheus?" Cindy asked, looking at the lord briefly before Mordred turned towards the portal.

"Our war titan of unfathomable size and power," He explained. "As old as our legion is, her spirit harbours the essence of our primordial founder, the Harbinger of Shadows."

He watches as the portal expands to accommodate their group size.

The room behind the portal looked like one massive forge, giant bellows set on the sides, servitors moved around hauling large crates and polishing the armor of the machines on the sides. Great fires would spurt from the white coals occasionally as the mechanical arms worked with sheets of metal.

They eight stared in amazement at the sight of the gigantic forge behind the portal, not noticing that ROCK, Argus and Mordred has already walked through.

"Come." Gaheris beckoned with his free hand. "I will recount the loss of one of the STC by her."

* * *

 **Several Years Back**

 _Hammer struck thick unnatural metal, sending sparks into the air around the rusted metal armor. He watched with great patience as he struck the metal, watching and feeling the metal bend into shape for the gun barrel of one of the war machine's six-barrel gun arm. He whispered in the lost tongues as he struck the metal until it looked perfected, taking up a total of three days for this one piece. A skull floated near him with chittering clicks, making him pause is whispers and hammer as he gently placed the forged metal into the finished pile, hammer placed on the stone rim as he reached to pull his large pistol from his back, his other hand grasping his prized halberd._

" _Is there someone in my domain?" He speaks loudly, turning around with a scanning helmet for anything out of the ordinary. He locks eyes with a golden-eyed woman much shorter than he is, with twin blades crossed on her lower back wearing a backless red blouse._

" _State your presence and reason before the Forgemaster, human." He orders, his servant skulls picking up two more human presence in the room, but hidden from his range. His screen flickers for a second as a display pops up with him commanding two of the war droids to wake up Lycanus, who guards the STC room and the other sleeping turrets and combat servitors to deal with the two intruders._

" _I am not here to be your enemy Forgemaster." The woman raised both her arms into the air to show that she is showing now tricks. "I just want to ask about what is all this since I've accidentally stumbled into this while fleeing from Grimm."_

 _Gaheris stayed silent for a minute before shifting weight. His armor's spirit screams liar as he himself thinks as well._

" _Liar." He fires a round at her, who dodges it deftly, quickly unsheathing her twin blades. "This Fortress is surrounded by rocks and overlooks the world, and my Skulls see two others of your 'fleeing party' in my rooms."_

 _She says nothing as Gaheris lunges in quickly with a powerful swipe of his halberd, the force is enough to create a crevice in the ground. But to his amazement- she blocked it where a mere man would be sheared in half by it._

" _So you've figured us out then." She replies by sliding under him, stabbing the blades into the thick ironclad armor, just going through it's first layer._

 _Gaheris growls as he swings around, only for the intruder to roll away a good distance from him. He raised his arm to deflect an arrow, only for another one to stick itself onto his breastplate and detonate in a shower of dust, knocking him to the ground from the unexpected force._

 _He quickly rolled to his feet for another swing at her, only to see one of her eyes glowing as an invisible blast sends him soaring into the pillar a few yards away. Groaning in pain, he reached to grab his halberd in a vice, his mind clouding with anger already._

 _He was outraged, bested by a mere human with aura. He stands back onto his feet, beginning to chant in his ancient, forgotten tongue. His halberd glowed like the coals in his forge. His body seemed to have firelicking the armor plates.._

 _Giving a roar he lunged again._

* * *

 **Presently**

The forge room is massive, the entire forge and the fires easily fills up the size of one of Beacon's lecture halls while the rows upon rows of war machines lined behind the massive room, half human servitors going about polishing or making upgrades to the archaic designs. Other than that, the heat is almost unbearable.

"So I lost in the end when an explosion detonated on my head. I was knocked out for a good hour and when I came to be, Lycanus and my skulls told me that they escaped and took a binding STC with them." He recounted as they walked in front of the very same fused corpse Kelly and Jay killed about three weeks back. But this time it laid on the table, dead and useless.

"Isn't that the thing I killed?" Jay shivered at the horrid sight of fused metal and flesh. "and almost killed Cindy?"

"It is all but of the STC that was stolen." Gaheris frowns under his helmet. "It was the blueprint they tried to replicate, but couldn't decipher to make it-"

He motions to the mess on the table.

"And with the Tome stolen as well, this is what happened."

Three servitors gathered around the table as Gaheris made a head motion and they leaned back slightly.

They stayed silent as Gaheris lifted his halberd high above his head and brought it down, the ax head cleanly severed each limb where the metal end, soon leaving nothing but the mangled body as the servitors removed the broken metal before setting the body down- or what is left of it.

"I take that this is not supposed to happen?" Emily spoke up as soon as the body is lain on the table.

"No, you can't use a live person mix with dust and something that uses a AI spirit to power in the same host. The AI spirit will reject the host and produce this when the corruption seeps in with the Tome that was used." He shook his head as he steps away from the table towards the grand double doors. "HLTP has been located and is brought here."

They continued walking down the giant brass gilded halls towards their destination with other teams as they were notified that ROCK has brought in HLTP after finding them in the forest.

"Why are the halls so tall?" Jay looked around with childish eyes as the tall warriors walked by them, paying no mind to them.

"It's to fit our much larger war machines- titans when we need to deploy them." Gaheris replies shortly as they walk by golden double doors motioning inside to see a brief of one two-story sized bipedal machine with guns instead of arms. "And that is our smallest titan yet. Prometheus is the largest- but we can't reveal her just yet."

"Aww." Jay pouted, Gaheris just gives a chuckle under his helmet as they walked through an armory of some kind.

* * *

 **Argus, Mordred and ROCK**

The six stood on the balcony, Mordred turned to the mid-day sky, Argus pacing deep in thought, Cyres inspecting her sword hilt, Mel lounging on the railing in the sun, Rio looking over the target book and Akaia had her armor being recalibrated by servitors.

"Mordred, as I saw earlier today with what happens with their upcoming confrontation." Argus looks at Mordred's back. "It is very odd."

"What did you see this time?" Cyres looked up from her inspection of Icentooth. "Besides concerning EBNY and CTDK."

Mordred only huffed in response, his parts creaked and groaned as he shifted slightly.

"How odd is it?"

Argus hesitates slightly before answering.

"I am seeing three outcomes, which never happened before." Argus explained. ROCK's attention instantly turned to him, curious of what he will say. Mordred stiffened for a second and turned to face him.

"Three?" Mordred repeated.

"Three, they all have the same outcome- one's untimely death or just barely making it, but replaced with different members every time I look into it- a gamble."

Silence fell over them all for the longest time in their history of meetings. Even Mel, who is known for her breaking the silence said nothing. Akaia looks to the ground.

"Just what are you planning Cinder Fall?"

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sorry this was late- Winter break turned into working break with practices and well... gaming? Oops.**

 **The real chapter would happen after the episode though.**

 **So be warned- it will go a bit dark as we would touch based with the past details.**

 **Also yes I do like Warhammer 40K so there will be a lot of refs.**


	13. 13- Go All Sneaky Like

**Hello there and welcome back with the start of more mysterious people in CDTK's lives while they lay low with the Shadows.**

* * *

 _Jay Delun…_

Jay awoke with a good start, waking on her own time without Cindy or Kelly shaking her awake for once. She gives a loud yawn, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She is greeted by the dome shaped guest quarters she and the two other teams reside in. The marble walls untouched by ages and the brass still polished after a million years. It was spacious enough to fit all twelve of them within without discomfort as well as fitting racks to store their gear for the servants to repair and treat when needed.

It's hard to believe that all the parts of the Fortress- sleeping quarters, mess hall, forges, armory, medical wing, garden, hangars, meeting rooms, guest rooms, temples and anything a city would have aboveground- is all skillfully carved into the mountain and below the land, including the sea port under the waters of the great oceans.

Jay turned to her left, giving her the view of the early morning sun over the ocean. It was quiet, save for the distant waves on rocks and the bonfire in the center of the room. It is rare for her to wake up first. Her head no longer aches, except feeling a bit sore all over from the gauntlet run in the night before. She looks around to see all the other members still sleeping the morning away. Except Cindy and Emily were missing, their beds neatly made. She gently pushed herself up from her semi-firm bed, careful to not wake anyone up. Her stomach lets out a loud growl though.

Her feet feels the natural cold stone under her, causing her to shiver slightly before grabbing her boots.

She walked down the nearly empty halls, lit with the natural sun from the giant stained glass windows and the fire above. The hall were lively somewhat with servants or the giant armored people walking around from time to time, starting their normal morning routines- whatever it was. She looked at the carved walls, the tapestry depicting battles of some kinds, showing off the legion's might power in combats, duels or warfare. The color of the threading used looked so realistic as the silver and gold seemed to move as she walked down the grand halls. There is the tapestry of the Forgemasters, recognizing Gaheris among the four that were shown in their full panoply of crafting. There stands one in white slimmer armor like Argus with something like pipes going over her back and there is another like Gaheris but their armor is more twisted, mechanical arms were replaced with cruel drills and other tools, matching the arrowed armor.

Though there is one where she paused for her full attention.

It was the tapestry of a woman in a black cloak etched with runic markings unlike Argus and the other white Forgemaster. Her skin is like porcelain, her eyes like ebony as her hands held something like black fire. She can see some of her grayish hair under the hood of her cloak.

It felt as if the tapestry is calling her closer. She stepped towards it slightly, her hand brushing the surprisingly soft fabric. A soft and ghostly voice is barely audible next to her ear.

 _Ful van woul karn tzing…_

She almost sees the lady moving, a ghostly hand caresses her cheek.

"The Harbinger of Shadows." Jay jumped at the sudden silvery voice. She spins around to see Akaia standing behind her, her body no longer clad in the bulky armor, showing off the mechanical bioform hidden underneath a very unleaderlike attire of a pair of black basketball shorts and a white tank top. "My apologies for startling you. You seemed to be entranced by the tapestry."

Jay tried to keep herself from having a mini heart attack by clearing her throat.

"Sorry, but the lady looked so captivating," She tried to find the words to describe what happened seconds before Akaia arrived. "Like she was calling me to her or something."

Akaia tilted her head and looked at the tapestry before looking back at her. Jay looked back at the lady as well, but she seemed flat and inanimate like the rest of the tapestries.

"Did she say anything?" Akaia asked. For once in her life, she has never seen someone as level headed as the _commander_ of the Order so confused at a work of art and a girl who claims to hear a voice.

 _Ful can woul karn tzing._

The voice repeats in her head clearly.

"I don't think so." She looked at the work again. Still flat and inanimate. She shrugged. "Could be the wind."

Akaia shrugged and turned around back down the hall.

"Perhaps."

Jay could've sworn she saw someone in a black cloak behind the pillars before she blinked. She could almost see her face under the black shadowy hood.

* * *

 **Training Arena**

Diane's back hit the brass pillar with searing hot flames fanning from her and around the pillar. Her weapon flew out of her hand before she struck the pillar, landing across the training room.

She felt like an fool for accepting the fiery girl's challenge.

Moments after the fire ceased, she collapsed onto the ground as a black heap, steam steadily rising from her blackened body. She is panting for breath on her knees and elbows while the trenchcoat, gauntlet girl stand across from her, arms crossed and childish ruby eyes watched in amusement as she tried to get onto her feet.

"Done already?" She sounded sad and a bit disappointed, but sincere behind the teasing words. "Aww."

"Mel, you've killed her enough for the day." Cyres' accented voice interjected before Mel can go anywhere near her. "Now can you pick her from the ground and help me heat up the tea before you go have a lava sauna?"

"Yeesh, do it yourself princess." Mel stuck her tongue at Cyres as she hoisted Diane to her feet, brushing the soot from her. She stopped once Cyres shot her famous death glares at her. "Okay, okay one juance shi-tea comming up."

Cyres glared daggers at her before rolling her eyes as Mel sauntered out of the room. She turned back to Diane and handed Bleak Dusk back to her.

"We have much to discuss about," She eyed her blackened from while guiding her to the balconies bench that gives them a splendid view of the ocean beyond the land . "And work on your stance after the tea break."

Diane sighed heavily and plopped down on the bench like a fish out of water.

"What do you want to talk about, Cyres?" She asked, pushing her head off the wall when Cyres sits down beside her, her robe neatly tucked under her long legs.

"A lot more than I can describe."

* * *

 **Hour 1023 ; War Room**

"What the hell do you mean that Prometheus is the "only answer"?" Akaia speaks up from her side on the long table. "There must be other solutions to this."

On either side of her sits her team and across of them sits Argus, and the The Grand Forgemasters Gaheris, Auriel and Aron. Of course, sitting on the left end of the table upon a black iron throne is Mordred. And there was one chair next to Gaheris that is vacant.

"I agree with my sister, even though we may not see the same from time to time." Rio follows, the Killian siblings looking briefly at one another before facing the older members of the Council.

"We can't let millions of lives go to die in vain because of our upcoming tactical error." Cyres pressed on, clearly using her status to help her team be heard by the members.

"Tactical error?" Aron guttural voice snarled beneath his warped helmet, the mechanical arm on his back whirled to life. "Now see-"

"Aron, don't let your gear go over your head, Aron." Auriel's soft voice rang about the room as she chastised her partner. "You don't want to repeat what happened last time."

Aron huffed and leaned back on his chair, not wanting to argue with her.

"Silence you two." Gaheris looked at the two of them. "Bickering will get us nowhere."

"Says you Gaheris, you were the one who wanted to unleash her while me and Auriel opposed the idea."

Mel tugs on Cyres' sleeve, aking the older woman turn to her with a hardened gaze for a split second.

"We should tell them." Mel whispered to Cyres. The queen nodded slightly before clearing her throat loudly.

The three Forgemasters turned to her, gazes hard and judging.

"I must say, this is exactly how our timeline ended with horrible measures of awakening her." Cyres stated, her ice forming behind her in a shape of the miniature sized warforged titan, standing over the premises of Beacon three times in height- her cannons firing into what looks like a large chunk of Vale. The cannon fire carved a huge chunk of land from the continent, reducing it to smouldering ashes that is soon filled by the ocean. "And this is pretty much what happens."

"But we can't let Cinder Fall take the rest of the Maiden powers. We would have no other alternative to stop her." Aron argued, ruby lenses looking at Cyres, who only ignored him. "What would you prefer?"

Cyres opens her mouth to respond before Mel speaks instead.

"I rather see the world alive than burn at our hands, Aron." Mel speaks before Cyres can let out a sound. "It is a part of her plan to get us to unleash _her_ and BAM, she wins because she will divert her attention and storm into the this place the moment we open the earth for _her_ to destroy the planet."

Silence prevailed in the war room, all attention to Mordred and Argus who sits silently in thought.

"My lord, what will you take?" Argus turns to Mordred, the old machine warlord turns his head slightly to ROCK's side of the table.

"Akaia, go back to Beacon with your team to investigate into this matter," Mordred commands with a serious tone. He turns to the Forgemasters. "Forgemasters, go awaken our machines and not _her_ yet."

"But sir-" Gaheris starts.

"No buts Gaheris, remember we stand as a passive ground, we only aid them for now as the alliance says." Mordred turns directly to him, which shuts him up instantly. "And with team ROCK, we can learn more than simple things of both parties."

"What about CDTK, HLTP and EBNY?" Rio asks, donning his helmet again. "Should they remain here?"

"It's for the best." Argus replies. "The former may not like give such a warm welcome if they show their face at Beacon again."

* * *

 **Beacon Grounds**

ROCK landed back on the area of Beacon, their mission: keep a tab on the suspicious events and take actions if provoked. Mel is left to Yang, Rio and Akaia to the tournament, Cyres and Hazurfurn to take the perimeter of the Festival and Beacon.

Rio's armor fades back into his aura again leaving him in nothing but his plated under armor. his baton strapped to his thigh as he adjusts to the weightless feeling without the heavy armor on his body. His black shirt has gray plates hammered on, almost like his dark brown pants with built in thigh guards. His black combat boots made no noise as he walked down the crowded halls when the crowd is roaring outside on the matchup.

He sighs and runs his hand through his short hair, ignoring the stares of the ladies around him as he pushes the door open to an empty maintenance hall.

It seemed empty for the most part, save the screaming matchup. Nothing would catch his attention for now.

Until he hears the sound of door closing around the corner in the distance. He quickly jogs closer, pressed close to the wall as if he is merging with the shadows- which he is.

He hears voices as he closes in. He peers around the corner, hoping to see the source of the problem.

His gray eyes widened at the sight of Mercury- who is supposed to be in Haven.

"We are so fucked again..." Rio quickly turned to his scroll- placed conveniently on his bracer of his left arm.

' _Akaia, Mercury's here_ ' He tapped on his arm scroll to notify Akaia.

' _Emerald. Neo here . stands.'_ Akaia replied in short words not long after, meaning that Emerald is here in the stands. Also because Akaia is a walking biological construct, her retinal upgrades allows her to see through most things.

' _Ruby is here- interfere._ ' Rio quickly typed back. He re-emerges from his shadowy blob and steps into the light therefore revealing himself to the two students.

"Hey," Rio clears his throat, he cocked an eyebrow at Mercury, diverting his attention to him instead of Ruby. "I thought you were in Haven… "

"Rio!" He hears Ruby's small voice behind him. Rio's eyes shifted to Ruby and back at Mercury.

"So why the hell are you back here?"

* * *

 **A/N So ROCK knows about Cinder and how she will pretty much take over the world and they are trying not to repeat mistakes again.  
Akaia is not like Penny in a way besides being both machines- Akaia has a soul and more like Mordred- AI embodiment constructs , not cyborgs.  
**

 **Forgemaster Auriel, and Forgemaster Aron are newly introduced- the fourth is later.**

 **Though what could happen next?**


	14. 14- Battle Royale

**Meanwhile the show is getting dark and interesting- so will this story!**

* * *

Cyres walked down the festival under the evening glow of the sky. Hazurfurn dissapeared somewhere a while ago, keeping guard on his own terms while she took the streets. With her dragon visaged closed helm donned, she attracted attention of students and adults alike when she walked about. She walked by the colorful tents and buildings into the quieter backstreets away from the festivities. She did not feel any immediate threat around her yet beside a dull nagging in the back of her head. Her fingers danced on the handle of Icentooth as she walked down the silent path of her patrol.

" _Mercury not Haven- here._ " Her helmet displayed behind the . Cyres kept her pace, boot platings making some noise as the tail of her robe fluttered from the wind.

" _Mel Cyres - Keep look_ " Akaia messaged them again. It's a code for "Something's not right- keep your eyes and ears open".

She felt another small gust of wind pass her from the back. It is not the wind of the actual sky, but someone running by quickly. Cyres whipped around, her on Icentooth. No one.

She turns around again, her shield forming on her arm as she readies to meet her attacker.

 _Thunk!_

Two black arrows land in front of her, one next to her foot.

"Oh shit-" Her eyes widened as she recognized the distinct black arrowhead and slide a good yard back as they detonated in an explosion, kicking up concrete and dust around her.

As the dust and fire settle, in front of her stands a very familiar person with golden eyes and a even more familiar skin tight black suit and mask.

"Well," Cyres clears her throat under her helmet. "Fancy meeting you here, Miss Cinder Fall."

The woman says nothing before Cyres brings up her shield to deflect the black twin sword she wields.

Cyres brings her own sword up to take a swipe at her. Being possibly younger than Cinder. She can keep up just easily.

"You're fighting style is not much better than Mel's." She weaved under a sword and at her head and struck with her sword, the elongated ice sword striking her adversary' shoulder.

"You're not much different than those I've fought in the past." Cinder smiled at her. She swings her black blade aimed at Cyres' blind side over her shield.

Although she knew her aura would deflect her ice sword, Cyres jumped over a side swipe, twisting and landing behind the older woman, flat of Icentooth on Cinder's shoulder, the sharp edge pressed near her neck.

"You picked a wrong time to fight me Cinder." Cyres kept herself from sounding excited.

She is finally- in all the battles she fought against her in the other timeline- is getting an upper hand here!

Cinder stabbed at Cyres from under the deadlock, the blade grazing her glaerroium cuirass as the spark, making Cyres jerk away from the blow, ice forming around the blade. Cinder grasped her wrist, pinning it to the brick wall, smiling as Icentooth falls to the ground. Cyres growled and leaned a little, her other hand glowing as she prepares to jab it at her. But Cinder is ready, she spins around to meet her icy blue gaze, her other black sword's point jabbed into the chink between Cyres' neck guard and pauldron, holding her fast to the wall.

"I think I've picked the best time, dear." Cinder leaned in close, a smile forming on her lips. A smile that shows her vile and toying nature.

Cyres can feel the heat radiating from the twin weapons. She has to move fast before she is either killed or knocked out unceremoniously. Her eyes begins glowing a bright blue, frost creeping out of her helmet as she breathes, her shield hand reaching out towards her opponent. Ice begins forming in her palm as Cinder's much gentler hand rests on her breastplate.

 _CRASH!  
_ Cyres' vision is cut short after a very loud explosion in her face sent her back through one of the concrete walls across the alley and into the streets filled with busy people.

She couldn't believe that she was launched a clear twenty yards and through solid walls.

Is this the power of a half-maiden?

She dare to think what destructive power would Cinder have if she has all the power.

She can vaguely hear and see the panicked screams of the pedestrians before blacking out altogether.

* * *

"Cyres!" Jay jerked awake from her afternoon nap, her breaths coming in quick pants as she awakes with a rude start.

"Doh-fuc-"She also inevitably kicked Kelly off their shared bed as well, causing the larger girl to land as a heap on the floor with blankets and her books.

"Sorry." Jay muttered.

She has no idea if that was a dream, a vision or anything and why the heck would she be dreaming about Cyres? What happened to ROCK at Beacon? Why did it seem so real?  
She rather be off dreaming about Kelly or something.

"What the hell happened?" Cindy says across the room, placing Mourning Dawn on the table, both her and Diane's attention to them now. "Did you get a nightmare of the boogeyman?"  
"More or less." Kelly pushed herself to her feet, brushing herself off and gathering her book and blankets in her arms. "It's enough to frighten her this much- it's pretty serious."

Jay quickly picked up her scroll.

5:45 PM.

It just happened.

She flings herself off the bed, almost knocking Kelly down again. She hastily put on her shoes, fumbling with the straps.

"What's the hurry?" Diane looked perplexed, sharing a concerned look as the rest of them. "They'll be fine-"

Then the sounds of boots to the floor made them turn as they see one of the adorned armored warriors of a white helmet battle group stand in the doorway.

"I am of the First Company Veterans under Rio and I bring his message." He announces before kneeling. "He says: Stay here with the teams, something is happening and you don't want to be in the crossfire."

As soon as he stopped, Jay scoffed loudly.

"Fuck that, Beacon's our school." She glared at the warrior before running past him and down the hall.

"Stubborn one, isn't she?" He looks at Cindy, who only sighs and nodds.

* * *

Cyres's world is spinning, literally. Her ears are ringing due to her helmet being knocked off after the blast sent her through concrete. Her entire body hurts, screaming at her as she rolls onto her elbows, slowly making to her feet, staggering like a drunkard as she looks at the fleeing crowd. She grips Icentooth tightly in her right hand as she summons a ward with another.

How dare she humiliate her like this! She is the Queen of the goddamn Scyrus- the One of the Frost Wyrms.

Of course dragging her into the city like this would give her some recognition among the dwellers of the city.

Her icy blue eyes meet the gold eyes, Cider unmoving from her spot, just observing Cyres from the distance.

But then again, fighting one on one is a wiser choice.

Cyres begins whispering under her breath, her eyes glowing as she focuses her view on Cinder while her mind is focused in the areas outside the industrial areas where it is empty.

" _Ferum dre mortis…_ " She whispers, a bright light enveloped them both, blinking away into thin air leaving nothing but a cold draft.

She lands on her knees as one of her eyes stopped glowing, panting heavily, but her gaze never leaves Cinder even in her weariness. Pushing herself onto her feet again, she summons her ice blade again.

"You shouldn't push yourself, dear child." She smiles deviously at the tiring Queen. "I even wonder how you're a Queen with all the ice powers you have- you're still as weak as a student."

"Unlike you, thief, I actually train to gain my powers." Cyres retorted, raising her sword at her. She can't hide it, she's almost burnt out. "I have to give it to you, but I won't let you pass you plan."

"Well, I won't be surprised it's your corpse that your lover finds when she arrives too late." Cinder notches two arrows, aimed at her face.

The grass around her began forming frost, then icicles as she takes a step forward towards Cinder, who just stands there. Ice crawls up her arms, slowly creating jagged patterns. The gray clouds swirled over her as the great ice wyvern descended from the sky, towards Cinder as Cyres' eyes glowed a bright blue.

A bullhead flew over her, followed by a dark bird. Cyres paused her casting, eyes returning to normal.

" _Endig var Izar_." Cyres whispered in her native tongue to the old dragon. Without missing a beat, he reared back, a ball of blue fire erupted from his throat and sailed into the darkening sky.

* * *

The three teams sat in one of their assigned air ship that is flying towards Beacon as they speak. They have the ship's wall display tuned to the tournament to kill the three hour flight back.

Peaked with bets and callouts on their favored fighters-

None of them really prepared for the outcome for the match. When Penny is lying on the ground, completely dismembered by her own weapons- they were at a loss for words.

"Holy- shit." Lilly- known for being the logical and well mannered one of the three teams swore at the sight.

"I didn't know these kinds of robots existed- except Akaia." Barbra cringed slightly.

"Well Akaia is not really a arua android." Kelly corrected, being the least affected. "She's a bioform construct like Mordred."

"Okay, thank's for the description, but that is unnecessary at a time like this Kelly." Cindy chided, frowning at the larger girl.

Kelly leaned back in her chair, fiddling with her gauntlet arm, letting her mind relax and not think about what the first thing would be when they arrive at Beacon.

* * *

Akaia smugly grins under her helmet at Ironwood, who scrambles to the MC box.

"I guess Auriel was right after all." Akaia leaned against the steel walls, chuckling amusedly to herself. "There is a difference between construct and android."

"Sis, Ruby made it out and Mercury… well… got out." Rio says as he is pulling himself from his portal. She looks at the night sky, unfazed by the contrast of the lively arena. But to her surprise she sees the faint outline of their Raven Talon transport hovering overhead.

"Son of a bitch." Akaia hissed. Of all the times, these three idiots of a team decides to jump in? She watches from her adjusted sights as the craft slowly descend onto the grounds of Beacon. Then her attention is focused back on Rio as he speaks again.

"Any word from Cyres? Mel's still with Yang." Rio speaks again, voice more amplified due to him phasing his helmet and armor back on. "I lost her signal a while ago- I hope she's alright."

"Damnit Rio, the kids are here." Akaia ignored the last part to tell him that. "And I have faith in her Rio, she is a Fulgrin after all."

"I won't count on only that sister, Mel said that the Fall is the only one not present- along with that ice cream girl." He crossed his arms over his thick chest. "Oh, and all two hundred of the Fourth Company is currently keeping the Grimm at bay with the Atlas military… And Mordred and Argus is somewhere."

Akaia nodded, at least there is some good news in a time like this.

"Ozpin is not going to be happy when he sees a aura android." Akaia comments, inspecting Leviathan's sharp blades. "Argus wasn't kidding when there would be strife between Atlas and Vale. It's heading that way already."

Akaia pushed herself off the wall and feels a small frigid draft hit her armor.

"Did you feel that?" Rio asks, uncrossing his arms and is confused under his helmet A bolt of ice exploded into the sky. "Sister look, a rune!"

 _Izar._ A rune that signals help.

"Cyres." Rio has never seen Akaia disappear so fast in his life before. And if she is to go this fast- then something _Bad_ just happened.

Not to mention loud blaring alarms.

She must've sounded the alarm.

Rio let out a frustrated groan before opening up his interface and unsheathing Vanquisher.

"All First Company Veterans- this is Captain Rio…"

* * *

They instantly ran out once the landing pads were only grazing the asphalt of their rooftop landing- having to diverge a path into the city instead of Beacon.

There are Grimm _everywhere._

"What the flippity hell is this?! We're gone for a week and this happens?" Jay pointed at the Grimm as they poured down the streets. Then came in several bullheads- with one being shot down by their ships guns. "What the hell is that?!"

One of the bullheads landed on the square not far from them.

And out came a very familiar teams with axes, drones, and guns of all kinds.

"I spoke too soon, didn't I?" Jay sighed into her palm.

"Alright, take and hold everyone!" Hanna shouts to the three teams as they fire into the streets below. "Help if you can, thin out all ranks that opposes you!"

"Also watch out for White Fang, they are here too!" Brenda announces as she shot a Beowulf's head clean off it's neck to save a woman than has fallen three buildings down from their spot.

A deafening roar came from a few blocks to the west as three separate gigantic pods crashed into the ground. Then a single large portal opened in the sky just right under them.

Just as the six bipedal war machines walks into the city, a massive black portal tears at the air on the hill not too far away, fifty ornate armored, white laureled helmet spewed out, their weapons varied from massive guns, swords, pistols storm our in unison, facing their opponents down and demolishing them without a second thought.

"I think we're standing in the meeting spot." Kelly comments, weapon lowering as she recognized Rio appearing in front of the fifty men as the war machines ran off into the city, the earth shaking with their every step.

"Well, in the other note, your renegade friends are going to be waiting for you at the plaza." Came a familiar voice behind them.

* * *

 **Okay I'll admit- I'm a huge fan of Games Workshop and ROCK alludes to that (Most of them that is) And most of the introduced army is based on the Arthurian legend.**


	15. 15- Hellfire I

**This was written late, I'm tired and I have dance practice tomorrow... Anyways, between each view, war machine names are reveled. (CTDK and crew do not know the machine names, but ROCK and the OoE does.)**

* * *

 **Deep Within the City**

While the monster is clearly heard and seen ravaging the hills in the distance, Emily watches from her point as a white portal opens next to the building beside them. She can hear a chorus of vocals and soothing instruments of some kinds playing as a slender, humanoid machine the size of a three story building at the tip of it's back pipes. Unlike the raging beast that promotes fear and power, this one held a sense of awe and calamity as the machine emerged. Painted in black, white and silver, it's back pipes glowed, softly producing the music. It's right hand held a sword that has runes carved into the bone-blade, while it's left arm held a gun of some king with a blade extending to the elbow. It's faceless helmet reflecting the moon as a soft green glow burned inside.

Right on it's pointed breastplate, under a holo-shield stands Auriel, her pupils glowing green with her hands and chinks between the plates of armor as the machine mirrored her movements.

"Fancy seeing you here, EBNY." The faceless head turns with Auriel as she speaks to them. Emily did not know who to make eye contact with, the machine is staring at her with Auriel. "Staying alive I hope."

"You betcha." Ying replies with a fly of her arrow right between a Borbatusk's eyes.

"You're not late either." Nicole adds in as she shoots down a few Beowulves with quick succession of her pistols.

Auriel only hums and turns to see a full grown Goliath the size of her knight charging at her. She and her machine both raise a hand, signaling them to cease fire.

"Let me display a taste of true, untouched power." She whispered before taking off running at the Goliath head on.

They see the the knight gracefully spin around the tusks, sword slicing the thick skin before doing a backflip over it as the Goliath turns a second too slow. Her arm blade catches the Grimm between it's tusks and neck.

To their astonishment, there is a slight ripple around the blade before the psychic powers conjured fully, decapitating the Grimm in a spray of black, oily blood. Though she failed to notice another one coming from behind.

"Look out!" Branda shouts to the swift Forgemaster.

Auriel spins around, her left arm extending with the machines as a hexagonal shield burst to life in front of them, making the Goliath crash into it and into a building instead. A pulse of green fire fires off her machine's hand. causing the Goliath to swell up before exploding.

"Well, keep going- I have it here."

* * *

 **Borderline of Beacon and Vale**

"Tarkus, Avon, take your squad and go to Beacon to hold the defense against masked men and Grimm." Rio commanded, the two standard bearing sergeants before him nodded in unison before the eighteen men departed instantly, cleansing the streets with bullets and fire they take to get there. Rio watches them leave before turning around and place a hole in the Ursa's head. "I'll regroup with you soon."

The ground in the foothills behind him tore open jaggedly, and out came a monster that is made of pure fire and metal with an bloodthirsty mentality. Chains adorned the black and silver beast that stands as tall as two men. It lets off a mighty earthshaking roar as the jagged portal closes behind it.

They weren't surprised either when they see the chaotic Forgemaster mounted on the fiery steed of pure chaos, battle ax raised to the sky. Aron's horned, terrifying skull visaged helmet is thrown back, laughing with glee as they bounded by in flame steel and all out unrestrained anger.

"Let the sky rain blood of the innocents!" He shouted, crackling like thunder as he and his Juggernaut ran across the base of the hill, decapitating Grimms with his crude, twisted battle ax. On another note, Aron don't care who he kills as he cleaves through a few unfortunate Atlas soldiers without care.

"Advance!" Rio turns back to his twenty-four remaining men, two have been killed by unsuspecting nevermore feathers.

Aron and his Juggernaut steed set fire to the city as they ran through the streets, mirroring Mel as she and her small retuine of five fiery demons, the Wraiths of Fire stalk the streets, cleansing them in fire and lava.

* * *

 **Deeper in the City - West Side**

"Kelly!" Cindy shouts behind her as she flips over a charging Creeper before driving her ax into it's neck. Kelly looks at her after smashing a Beowulf into the ground. Cindy nods, which Kelly understands.

Kelly turns punches a Death Stalker in the face and fired her cannon into it's damaged face. She looks to Diane and nods. The sniper quickly quickly pull the large pack off her back and locks it onto Kelly's back and the pack began shifting into it's usual ammo housing as a tube and wire connects it to Kelly's arm and pack.

"Code 3!" Kelly shouts as her mask slides over her face as she leans forward slightly. "Fall into defensive line!"  
Despite Cindy being the de-facto leader of CTDK, Kelly remains the leader at calling defensive positions.

Jay and Cindy quickly retreats back slightly behind Kelly, their weapons shifting into their hybrid forms and take aim. Diane kneels down as Diane rests her sniper barrel on her shoulder. Cindy switches out a drum clip and switches to full-auto. They can see Kelly leaning forward, the gears churning under the vent of the massive gun as the first round slipped into the chamber.

 _BANG!_

The first shot came in a white flash before a Grimm exploded. Kelly shifted her fire into a wide arc, raking down the first wave in four shells with the rest of the teams to pick of the remaining staggerers. Cindy is surprised how the ammunition no longer give as much of a recoil as the older ones. She deducted that the design is more likely from Akaia or Aron due to similar round size and build. She looks at the ammunition counter on Kelly's arm.

Forty-five- times that by four rounds inside each bullet- that leaves her with about a hundred and eighty rounds to spare.

Jay can hear Kelly's gauntlet spin down to a halt with a soft hum with the chant of gears as the gun returns into its gauntlet from again. The taller girl panted slightly, her left hand clutching her right arm tightly.

"You alright?" Diane asks before she can.

"Y-yeah, just some-." Kelly waved her right hand slightly before pulling something from her area of injury. She looked at the piece of twisted metal and threw it aside. "That."

Jay shrugs and looks at Cindy, who seems to be out of breath, clutching her chest, shoulder moving quickly.

She doesn't ask, brushing it off as exhaustion.

* * *

 **Borders**

Last time Akaia counted there were still at least two hundred of her company standing with Atlas. Now with a staggering loss of forty- well… They're down to one hundred sixty without Rio's men. At least they fared better than the Atlesians.

The night sky is filled with fire, cannon fire streaking across the sky in the distant of the city. Blood of all kinds held heavy in the air like fog.

With Cyres unconscious on a mound of corpses that piled up to the sky- one can say she puts up a great fight as usual. Hazurfurn is looming over his student , busy flicking Grimm back to the gates of oblivion with a mighty swing of his tail. Or simply turning the entire place as a massive ice rink.

Whichever it is, the Grimms gathered towards him, drawing attention away from the hybrid army defending line of the Fourth.

She notes HLTP taking advantage of the distraction to set up traps around the perimeter with their startling speed. If caught by a Grimm, they rely on their weapons melee forms to take them out silently without drawing much attention.

"Keep their attention to you!" She shouts over the gunfire and other noises to her men who are busy holding the lines while keeping the wounded safe behind their wall of metal and lead. Although one Beowulf jumped into the smaller Guardian, claws piercing the hybrid armor easily. "Where's that heavy bolter turret?!"

A cannon fire exploded in the forest, causing several of the Grimm to explode into ashes.

At least the three Warhounds are here.

* * *

 **Near Beacon**

"Hold the line!" Rio shouts to the rest of the First Company as they take arms against the horde of Grimm inside the city while the large Atlesian command ship is firing at their own ships, letting derbies of flaming metal to fall on them and the White Fang and Grimm below.

Auriel's giant Wraithknight is seen fighting in the distance with Akaia and her men, creating galler fields that flings Grimm far across the land with a flick of it's wrist. Her machine acts as an extension to her amazing psychic powers, capable for her to control it on the ground or not through neural connections.

A explosion sent him to the ground as a intact gunner ship fell not too far from the line of white-helmeted warriors. The explosion was powerful enough to send both sides to the ground- the lesser armored grunts were killed instantly while Rio recognized that three of his men were killed on impact and derbies.

Forty-two of his men are left.

They stand tall, unfazed by the carnage before them, even as explosions racked the ground that sent the faunus to the ground.

They are _Her_ embodiment, an extension of _Her_ will to bring Hell and order wherever they go. They are to stand tall and stiff like a wall and not suffer emotional baggage. The cries of the dying didn't affect them as much as Rio. They mercilessly cut down whoever gets close to them with a precise swing of their bayonet or their swords.

Heck, even after ten years of being as one of the Order, he still is shocked by their way of handling a skirmish. He envied that they can block out their pleading cries as the ground is painted red slick with blood and bits of what remained of the bodies before being charred with the flamer-type weapons. Oh how he envied them.

Rio growled and shakes the thoughts from his head, raising his gun arm up and pulling the trigger before giving a roar as he and his heavily armored Terminator guards run into the fray, their large armored bodies ramming through and crushing bone like thin glass slides.

His heart fell every time he killed one, thinking how misguided they are and how they are throwing their lives for a goal that long had a tainted grasp, whispering false promises to the new ones.

He just wished none of this had to happen when he watches a bullhead be mowed down by the assault cannon of his armored brethren before it even had a chance to open it's side hatches.

" _Rio._ " Akaia's voice drew him from his thoughts as he turned from the gruesome sights of the battle. " _Hope is lost on this front, we're drawing back to you._ "

Rio's eyes widened under his helm before looking at the city that is engulfed in flames and the screams of anything echoed the air.

"But, sister, why? We have the upper hand." Rio tried to reason with his victory. "You're leaving the city open to just three Atlesian and three teams that are basically a suicide team?"

" _We have no choice, Rio._ " Cyres' voice merged with his. " _We're losing too much, one of our Warhound Titans have been destroyed and the Fourth Company of Banshees, Astartes, and Berzerkers is reduced to nothing but a handful of a hundred._ "

Rio growled again and before he can say anything, Mel interjected.

" _Yeah, about that, we're toast, we're outnumbered and the Grimm are coming faster than we can take them down here._ "

"But we can still do a line here to prevent the Grimm from advancing into the scho-" Rio started before Akaia's voice cut him off.

"Well… Shit."

Rio looked at the carnage before all the links in his helmet without notice.

" _All Imperial Shadows units, this is Grand Master Mordred._ " His mechanical voice a pleasure to their ears.

* * *

 **With CTDK**

" _Let the world fear us. For they are useless without our hands to guide them."_

The sky grew red and orange as three titanic ships burst into view as it phased into realspace. Hundreds of pods streaked to the ground as smaller ships detached from the main hangar and fell to the ground below.

They looked up at the sky, confused as multiple pods landed around them, breaking the buildings like glass and cracking the ground as they made contact.

"What the-" Kelly started before they all opened and armored men and women spewed out like a river of black death, box-like walking machines that stand as tall as a house spewed hot shells from the gatling gun arm as the clawed hand sliced through Grimm with ease.

Hovering ships streaked through the streets, their guns spewing white light that sliced through anything in their reach.

"At last!" Aron's voice laughed behind them. "We have the order."

Jay turned to him, shaken from the sheer brutality of the Order.

"What is this, what are those ships?" She asked, and Aron laughed upon his steed of metal.

"Oh the fury, the wrath, the woe that befalls you all!" He continues to laugh.

The creaking of joints alerted them when Auriel and EBNY arrived, a marching army of sleek armored men with large cannons and women with dual edged swords marched on. Auriel walked in front, her knight behind them all.

"Humans are useless with a failing plan." Her tone sounded hostile, unlike her natural graceful side. "They try and fail-"  
"And we have take things into our hands." Aron sneered, a pool of fire erupted behind him as demons crawled to light. They looked like they used to be humans- or whatever the Order had. Not anymore as their arms became tentacles, giant clawed hands or large pincers- some with two heads or none at all. They made guttural noises as they gathered behind Aron. Two four legged and two clawed mechanical being turned the corner, revealing the shivering visage of death on it's hull, the upper body with two laser cannons.

The two teams shook in fear in the display. They didn't know how to react to this at all.

"W-what was the order?" Emily asks the two leader.

"None of your concern-" Auriel looked at the ships in the sky before a massive explosion rocked the city. "Oh, they arrived early."

Aron turns and glances at the sky as a massive machine walks through, the massive weapon batteries firing all at once.

"The Reaver Titan, Argonaut is here." Aron chuckles, jerking slightly in a crazed manner. His helmet's jaw cracks across like Akaia as it was thrown back, fire spewing from his mouth. Auriel quickly punches him across his face.

"Save your power for later, Aron." Auriel frowns at him before watching the titan blow chunks of the city apart. "It's not even using the strongest ammo we have."

Aron huffed and his mouth sealed again.

"What is going on, what is the purpose of the Order of the Eclipse?" Barbra demanded, taking out her battle ax. The two Forgemasters seems unfazed at the threat.

"We are not the Order of the Eclipse as humans know it. We were the original guardians of this recruiting planet."

"My dear, we are really the **Imperial Shadows** of the Lycanus System. And we have awakened to being **Hellfire.** "

* * *

 **Dun. Dun. DUN**

 **Welp, they're screwed.  
The Imperial Shadows are here and ready to kill.  
**


	16. 16 - Hellfire II

**I am so sorry this is a bit rushed.  
But lets assume all the children would make it through the invasion of Vale.**

* * *

Mordred watched from Ozpin's office, hardened gaze focused on the Headmaster whose back is turned towards the Grand Master of the Imperial Shadows. His hammer gripped loosely in his right as a large pistol is carried in his left.

Another Atlas ship crashed into another, sending the fiery wreckage into the city.

"Tis a shame they are so…" Mordred clicked his metal tongue. "Fragile."

The city is in ruins in some parts, fire running everywhere, bullet streaks littered the night sky. Argonaut is seen launching its entire missile battery into the city, casting building and Grimm everywhere. There were bodies littering the Beacon grounds below, his First Company holding the line furiously, being led by the young Prince. Mordred almost wished he was there to guide them as well. But with the Shadow Reavers, his vanguard of six posted in the shadows of the night he is on, the building is quite safe from any retaliation.

He and Ozpin can see the fire blazing in the distant borders, signaling the retreating Fourth Company. He lost contact with most of them after the Grimm overran them, Akaia included. The two can see Hazurfurn flying in the sky, Cyres busy taking down Nevermores while the old dragon freezes the Grimm below them. Mel and her personal squad of hellish warriors stalk the further part, where the teams fail to make it and keep things under control.

He can almost taste the blood and ash on his metal tongue. Almost.

"A level nine?" He asked the white-haired man. He takes steps to stand beside the much smaller man, whose eyes are set on the city as another of the Atlas ships fell. "I'm here to help, you called me."

Mordred sheathed his pistol and placed a massive armored hand on Ozpin's shoulder. They can hear the explosions in the distance as the full power of the Shadows is unleashed.

"We knew this would happen." Mordred admitted. "Argus told me about it, we knew you and Ironwood would be deaf to our warnings and Ironwood is too prideful in the androids that are pathetic."

"Argus was right." The man sighed, leaning on his cane as Mordred looks down at him. "You were right about mankind's ignorance."

He moved away, walking to the holo-desk.

"Too prideful like Atlas." He said darkly, Ozpin turned to him, eyebrows furrowed. "They think that machines like those can survive the worst."

"What do you mean by that?" He asked and Mordred shook his helmeted head.

"Everything digitally based with a firewall of shit, means that he has been hacked long before the the Tournament." Mordred pulled a chip from his belt pouch and slid it across the table. "Even our servitors hacked into it without much ease."

Ozpin picked up the chip in his hand and inspected it. It is the size of his hand much like a computer chip.

"It's the virus used to get in the CCT and well…" He motioned to the battle raging outside. "Every broadcasting in Vale."

"Shouldn't you be able to be hacked as well?" He inquired to the construct. Mordred just let a laugh.

"I am as much as a man as much as I am a machine that's a man, Ozpin." He removed his helmet, revealing the two light blue optics and a mechanical face that replicates a human, except metal and gears. "We use machine spirit's or AI that was a man once. It's like hacking into a human brain- impossible to figure because every brain is unlike the rest."

He can see the surprise and confusion on Ozpin's face.

"My friend, understand that we, the Imperial Shadows, are not of this star system."

"Then what is your purpose here then?" He asks, standing straight in front of Mordred, even though he only reached his armored abdomen.

Mordred places his helmet back on.

"We-" Mordred started before the sounds of a portal opening interrupted him.

* * *

CIndy's vision blinked back to her, her head throbbing- along with her previous injuries as well. But only she and Emily have regained consciousness after Aruiel and Aron knocked them out swiftly with a turn of their hand.

How long were they out?

"Holy, crap, where am I?" Emily muttered to her as the girl looked around in a dazed manner. Cindy was about to reply when a low voice interrupted her.

"I'm afraid I can't risk it, I would be glad to talk sense into Ironwood, but he is bound be here soon." The large mechanical machine she presume is Mordred, leans down to the Headmaster.

"You mean well Mordred, I appreciate your honesty at times like this," Ozpin compliments before Mordred turns towards Cindy for a second.

Instead of saying anything back, he turns back towards the Headmaster and whispers something that they cannot hear, but she can make out some things.

"Should I call it?" Mordred asked, his shadowy cloak moving by itself.

"Do it." Ozpin nods at him before turning to face the windows. Mordred straightens tall, voice loud enough for them to hear.

"Let none survive." He calmly speaks to no one. "Gaheris, get your Devastators into position at once, Rio pull back into the school grounds, there are Aegis Defenders set up, Fourth Company pull back to Beacon's hill, and Cyres and Mel, retrieve Akaia."

He paused momentarily as the large titan turn towards the forest and unleash a swath of heated plasma into the forest. The trees burst into ashes as white light lit up the sky to the point it looked like a miniature sun.

"Auriel and Aron," He begins. "Do what Ironwood cannot finish and kill anyone and anything that moves except for students and civilians if possible."

" _The time for war is nigh._ "

Mordred clasped his hand around the haft of Godfeller before opening a portal on the window.

"Time bid us adieu, Ozpin." Mordred gives a head bow before disappearing. "We'll discuss matters latter for I have to plan."

Cindy was left dumbfounded as the leader left, leaving the eight of them in the office. She looked at the still Headmaster and pushed herself to her feet, a dull throbbing in her head. She reaches behind her back out of habit, to her relief that Mourning Dawn is still there.

"What's going on? Why was he here?" Cindy asks, using the table's edge to hold herself up.

She waits for the Headmaster to say anything-

"I need you and Emily to guard the Vault interiors." He responds after what seemed like minutes of racking explosions. "Your teams need to be outside the vault to protect the maiden."

No one questions any further, the two leaders salute and go to rouse their teammates.

Cindy gives Kelly a good kick to her side, making the large girl awake the moment the pain registered, her death stares boring into Cindy's soul.

"Could've awakened me better." She grunts, pushing herself to her feet. Kelly's mask is missing, revealing the scarred jaw.

"Well, go get Jay up and I get Diane." Cindy scoffs at her before a loud voice fills the room.

"I live!" And that came from Jay as she sits up, arms in front of her like the old fashioned zombies. Kelly jumped at the sudden voice. Her face is bloody as heck and her arm looked a bit better- except it was bleeding quite a lot. She noticed her partner. "Oh, whatusp?"

Kelly growled and shoved her back down.

"Nope, you're still dead, goodbye." Kelly chuckled, pushing against Jay, while the girl fought back, latching to her arm like a sloth. Kelly's expression fell as she stood up, trying to shake her from her arm. "Jay, get off."

"No."

Cindy sighed at the display as Kelly resigned to her fate with Jay now crawling over her back. A smile crossed her lips as she turned back to Diane, who she would have to use bandages for later. She gently shakes the sniper awake and waited.

* * *

 **At Landing Port**

Mordred and Argus ran with their Shadow Reavers, a team of eight elite warriors of the different caste of the legion- to the ports where civilians and students were to gather to evacuate. The Grimm and fragile White Fang fell before their very step as they radiate fear, warped black and silver armor and helmets that holds a romanian crest and flanked by thick horns curved to the front. Their armor is unlike the rest of the First, Fourth and Tenth companies. Instead of bulky or too thin armor, their's are perfectly balanced between them, master crafted armor with well placed vents to emit black wispy smoke as they walk. Over their shoulders are a black cloak fastened to their daemonic shaped pauldrons. Their hands grasp either swords, spears, axes or hammers, the other fitted with a wrist-mounted gun and shield.

Mordred shoved Ironwood out of the way of the giant Grimm to catch the claws with his thick pauldron as it leaves four deep claw marks on the artificer armor, making the Grand Master crumble a little under the blow. Growling, Mordred pushed off his foot, throwing the Grimm back several feet. His Honor Guard raised their weapons with Argus, they are ready to take the Grimm down with him.

Mordred raised a hand.

"No," He said calmly, standing straight and lowered his hand. The Grimm stands at least two heads over him. Argus said nothing and lowered his spear quickly.

The Reavers slowly lowered theirs as well, moving to shield the non-combative students and the civilians from the two and also create a wall of twisted metal if others were to arrive.

To their surprise and everyone around them, Mordred stabbed the legendary great hammer to the ground, leaving him free of any weapons. One can feel the vibration of Godfeller as the warhammer cracked the concrete under it.

He can feel the weapon's spirit wailing in his mind at its negligence of fight. It is displeased by his actions, but Mordred ignored it, focusing on the Grimm in front of him.

This is nothing more than the classical close-combat sessions with other members of the legion. Of course the Grimm waste no time to charge at him with astonishing speed anticipating that he is old and machines are slow as hell.

Wrong.

Mordred deftly swerved aside, hand pushing the offending claws aside to grab it with the other as quick as he dodged and with a mighty heave- brought the massive Grimm over his shoulders into the ground with enough force to shatter the concrete under it. Take no breather, Mordred quickly slide back, watching as the enraged Grimm bound at him again. He leaned back for the claw to nick the gorget of his armor, and the bony jaws lunged at his head. Bring up his arm instead for the beast to bite into the plasteridium platings.

He can hear the gasps of the students behind him when the Grimm takes a bite of his metal arm. He jerks his arm, ripping it clean from it's foul maw as his left hand trapps itself on the throat of the right leg of the Grimm twist into a odd angle with a blow from his metal shin, sending the Grimm to it's knees. Mordred quickly spins to the right- his left hand still on the throat- and wraps his entire left arm around the beast's neck fully, holding fast. His scarred right hand, now emitting sparks grips the upper jaw of the Grimm, fighting against as it tries to close its jaws.

And pulled with his strength.

The skull of the Grimm gives away in a spray of black bile, body going limp in his arms when the mechanical warrior cast the body aside, standing tall with the skull still undissolved in his iron grasp. Holding the grim trophy up for them, he clenches his fist, turning the white mask into chunky powder, letting it fall between his fingers.

"What happened to your army, Ironwood?" Mordred asks as he picks up Godfeller in his hands, Argus and the Reavers flanking him once again. "Why are your ships firing one another?"

"Someone hijacked one of them and fired upon the others." He tried to explain to the taller being. "I don't know how they got in, but they did and there's no defenses to Vale-"

"What about ground support?" Argus interrupts. The general's face falls for a moment.

"Most were destroyed on the ships that were carrying it." He points to a falling fireball. "Those unit's you see now are what's left."

"I feared so." Argus responds. "We've got other areas to attend to, I fear the students will be here shortly and we must take our leave."

Without awaiting a response, they vanished.

* * *

"Blast it all to damnation this is not going to end well!" Hanna shouts as she is backed with Rio and his larger brethren. The androids have turned on them and the White Fang have breached their positions. With nothing more than forty of the White helmet veterans and ten of Rio's own vanguard left- it's hard to keep track of what the hell is going on.

"I'll confess, Atlas is not the best of nations when it comes to a digital army." Rio mutters, spinning Vanquisher around and bifurcating a circle of White Fangs and Grimm's with ease while firing a earthshaking round that has a force of a stick of TNT.

"Don't forget us!" A voice booms overhead. Hanna hears the sounds of glass shattering from the building.

Kelly, without her mask, green fire seeping from her clenched teeth and spewing from her power fist, her coat tails fluttering behind her. A writhing form of a five headed Hydra hovering over her. Her face is furrowed into a snarl as her animalistic side takes over- the Hydra taking a more physical form as her green fire fuels it.

Jay bolts through the glass of the building above the, glass shards flying around her as her right eye glows blue like fire and her beloved chain sword shifts into it's terrifying form. A crazed grin plastered over her face.

Diane' her left eye glowing orange with her rifle in it's hybrid claymore rifle form. A shield aura made of hexagonal plates phased around her, flanking her.

Last but not least, Cindy bursts out in a plume of fire. Her avatar of war materialised above her, completed with it's fear inducing panoply of war complete with a helmet and full plate armor, inscribed with scenes of war and death. It's great double headed ax engulfed in fire, ready to tear rifts into the earth under it. Her eyes blazed with the unimaginable fury.

Hanna- too busy with the arrival of the team, failed to notice a Griffon swooping behind her. She turned when she heard the screech to find it so close to her she cannot raise her short sword in time.

 _BANG_!

A sharp crack of a sniper rifle and the head exploding made her look to the left, following the faint smoke trail to the arches where the assassin team stands tall.

Emily, standing with Tryggr perched on her left arm, her crossbow loaded in her right. Her gray hood covered her eyes as two phantom snakes curled around her.

Brenda removed her rifle sights from her face as she stands up, a curt smile on her face when she gives a thumbs up to Hanna. Her large rifle splits in half, four energized rods pushing out the side of the barrel, the sights shifting into several smaller ones along the length of the gun.

Nicole gives her dual pistols a spin on her fingers, wearing an ammunition belt across her chest with at least six clips, four are her regular specialized ammunition. Two are known as needlepoint pelts, said to melt flesh with poison so potent that Grimms die in one accurate hit.

Ying stands next to Nicole, her longbow shifting into its hybrid bladed gunbow form, two quivers, one on her back and one on her lower back. Her lower back holds her regular dust and gunpowder laced arrows while her back holds her self-guided kraken rounds that would burst into eight separate shards upon contact with anything with the power to burst through steel.

* * *

"Sorry, we're late!" Kelly shouts over to Penelope, who stabs her dual daggers into the back of the Griffon before Kelly finishes it off with a breath of green fire in it's face. "We got a bit… curtailed by something."

"No worries." The antelope faunus grabs her dual gun daggers from the ground before kicking a Beowulf behind Diane, who is not too far from her. "We managed to hold off a lot more before you arrived."

"I see." Kelly nods quickly before her five-headed manifested dragon avatar that is the height of Beacon's dormitories; decided to tear apart whatever their long necks can reach. Each of the five heads spewed out great swaths of poisonous green flames that reduced the Grimm all but to ashes.

Diane sliced through a larger Beowulf's neck before firing off a round to propel her onto one of the Hydra's head just for it to flick her towards the arches, where EBNY has fanned out, taking down airborne and picking off the stragglers towards civilians.

Cindy enveloped the entire courtyard with Mel in cleansing fires that left the buildings untouched and unscathed- unlike Mel, who pretty much charred anything in her way. Her avatar carved ravines into the earth as she and it swings around, taking out swaths of her opponents in a blink of an eye. Meanwhile, Jay is busy carving into pretty much carving anything that is not clad in thick armor or has the R.F.P emblem.

* * *

 **On Board the Atlas Flagship**

The ship is certainly much smaller for any man or woman the size of two meters to fit in the halls. Much less someone probably pushing random buttons as there is hissing left and right. His extra mechanicals arms hissed in his mind, telling him to be aware of his surroundings. But his footsteps remained silent while his armor hissed with the array of extra servos. His rusty red armor reflected the dimmer lights of this ship as he walked through the halls.

"This makes my job a lot easier." He chuckles to himself as his helmet shows his six eight man squads of heavily equipped warriors with the most terrifying array of support weapons from the heavy bolters, gravity gun, autocannons and the feared melta cannons.

And of course, several of his personal transport and heavy support.

They await him on _Titanus_ , waiting for the invasion force to ready.

He pauses before the Atlas marked sliding doors, and gripped his conversion beamer combi-bolter tightly in his hand, the other on his halberd, his mechanical arms whirling to life around him. The doors slid open and he walked in.

The ice-cream colored girl in the Atlas uniform turned at him and smiles. Gaheris nods briefly to her before clearing his throat loudly to get the man's attention.

"Ah, Gaheris," Roman turns and opens his arms to the Forgemaster. "So nice to see you here. Is the invasion ready?"

Gaheris chuckles slightly before replying.

"Oh, they don't know what hit them." He stabs his halberd into the metal floors and walks over to one of the screens. Thick cables slithered from his back and inserted themselves into the mainframe. The display turned into a view of the city and it's events.

"You remember Neo, don't you." He asks, walking up next to him.

"I never forget a face Roman, you know that." Gaheris replies calmly, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Thump.

The three look at one another before Roman sighs.

"Go check it out." He waves Neo off.  
"We have some company, Roman." He robotically replies, detaching himself and grabbing his halberd.

"W-wait, where are you going?" Roman scrambles after the Forgemaster.

"Stay here." He instructs. "I have some vermin to take care of."

* * *

Rumble.

They fighting parties ceased momentarily as they turned to the distance.

 _Rumble!_

"Holy-"

"Shit." Was their response as the mountain in the distant exploded, a dragon Grimm burst into the night, causing fear to spread like wildfire among Vale to all except the Imperial Shadow, who kept a steely resolution and a sure aim.

The Grimm gives a mighty roar as it flies near Beacon, black droppings falling to the ground, creating more Grimm.

"Is that thing shitting out more Grimm?" Brenda asks as she shivers at the sight of the titanic Grimm that is the size of the Imperial Shadow's ship.

"The correct term is spawning- but yes shitting works." Ying corrects before one of the sludge lands next to her, and out crawled a large Beowulf who knocks her off the arc much faster than she can react.

"I gotcha." Diane runs by, catching the archer in her arms before bounding back to the top with her shields.

"Well, shi-" Kelly sighs before being knocked in the face by a Death Stalker's giant ass claw. "Ow."

"Yeah, we need help." Cindy lobbs the ax in it's head while it was distracted by Kelly's blunder, killing it with one blow.

BANG!

One of the veterans fell, her head melted off in a blast of blue plasma.

There is a battalion of at least forty-eight heavily armed astartes and several tanks and air crafts rolling up in the courtyard. Not to mention at least fifty Atlesian androids and ten Paladins joined them in the march. The company of the Forgemaster stormed through anything in their path, even the few civilians that unfortunately ran in front of them, only to be reduced to a molten puddle on the ground.

"Gaheris you traitor." Auriel snarls under her breath. She and Aron both glanced at each other before bringing raising their weapons to fight them with Rio, Cyres and Mel.

* * *

BNY and HLTP landed beside Cindy and the rest of her team, and they weren't the only one with second thoughts about winning.

With the roar of combat of the two sides clashing and the Grimm wrestling with the students, it left them with doing odd support roles around the courtyard.

And they were not expecting three certain renegades to appear with Gaheris' units.

"Missed us?" Jakob smiles smugly. He is covered in blood, his team as well and it looks horrifying.

"Oh, fuck, no." Jay growls at them. Jakob only grins, brandishing his double headed ax in the air, before pointing at the Cindy with a satisfied smile on his face.

"We're not leaving when traitors stand with us now." Kelly growled, Ripple Corruption shifting back into it's bayoneted form.

"Oh ho, we're not the traitors," Saruman walked forward, his gun pointed in a lax manner at the ground while his drones hovered around him. "We just follow the leader into what is right."

"And last I checked, the leaders of the R.F.P is the councils of the continents." Hana pointed at him with one of her twin gun swords.

"Well…" Jakob interjected, scrunching his face in a confused manner before narrowing his eyes.

He lunged forward, casting his ax downward on Cindy, who only managed to bring up Mourning Dawn in time to catch the bloodied ax with her own. She tried to not kneel under his strength as she forced their weapons together, not breaking eye contact. He is as much as determined to kill her as much as she wants to kill him.

"I guess that's the cue." Kelly turns around to see Saruman charging at her with his assault rifle raised to his face. "Ah, shit."

* * *

"My lord, Akaia and the Fourth Company has returned!" One of the vanguards shouted over the din of the battle.

As on cue, another flagship blinked into the sky over their heads. And a Ice dragon burst from a portal not much later, sending ice into the ground as he streaked past. Cyres, Mel and her own personal landed next to Rio.

"Sorry, we're late- we had to charge up Argonaut's volcano cannons and weapon batteries." Mel shouts as she creates a wall of fire around the entrance, reducing anything that touches it to ashes.

"And we have a bit more help on the way too." Cyres adds, bringing up her wall of ice.

And with the fire and ice walls meet- a massive explosion rocks the courtyard.

And out burst from the mist the entire one hundred and ten Fourth Company with the Third Company heavy weapon platforms with Akaia. Auriel and Aron with their companions drop from the ship,

Akaia's armor is torn in places, the left pauldron missing and a part of her breastplate cracked and broken revealing her under armour-clad robotic body. Leviathan and Behemoth were glowing brighter than any of the lightning claws around, shrouded in her seething rage that mirrored the battle crazed Khornate Berzerkers or the harrowing Banshees with her.

With a roar, her helmet's faceplate shattered across the mouth line, revealing the rows of sharpened teeth.

Rio also raises his halberd, giving a battle cry with his sister, then with Cyres and Mel, who engulfs themselves with their elemental fury that blazes brighter than the night. The Wraiths of Fire

The small army roared in unison, a battle banner raised high into the night as the army rallied around it.

The night ripped apart as a blue portal opens above them, the ancient ice wyvern bursting out into the material realm. Hazurfurn roared, the wyvern as old as the planet of Scyrus takes the skies towards the dragon Grimm, blue eyes glowing in all his glory as his icy body begins glowing in ancient Scyrian runes.

" _Enok Var tsuri_!" Came Mordred's thunderous voice as they joined the fray.

They charged.

As the standoff and the great betrayal would be recorded in Imperial Shadow and Beacon history alike, remembered for all eternity.

Even more than the battle that broke the moon ages ago.

* * *

 **In other words- everyone's screwed.**


	17. 17 - Bloody Revolution

**My poor heart... from Ep 11**

 **On the other note... Enjoy and review please!**

* * *

 **Beacon Docks**

Cindy rolled under a wide arc from Jakob's ax, she can feel the blood drops splattering on her skin as it goes past her face. She quickly countered by slashing his armored arm and push herself a few feet away. She runs again at his slight blunder, bringing her ax over her head and down on his battle ax with just as much ferocity as he have upon her. He responded by catching her arm and pulling his growing ax across her abdomen, which a orange hexagonal shield managed to intercept between the blade and her jacket.

"You're still weaker than me." She kicks his shin quickly before kicking his chin by doing a backflip. Jakob roars in anger as he stumbles back with a large hand clutching his nose.

"Try harder, little man." Cindy grinned. Ironically Cindy is just a day older than he is. And Jakob hates being called 'little" even though he is almost twice her height. He rams into her with his spike shoulder, knocking the wind out of her before she lands onto her back quite painfully moments later.

Jakob runs at her again with his ax held high, ready to kill her for sure. She scrambles to raise Mourning Dawn to intercept the blow.

CLANG!

Jakob screams in pain as Cindy sees a very familiar fiery ax over her attached to a armored arm. He is thrown back with a powerful riposte from the ax of fire.

Her avatar of war manifested on instinct, protecting her with it's ethereal body. It's armor of steel and fire hovering over her like the shroud of the devil.

Even she herself is surprised at its sudden appearance.

She can her growling from him in the distance as his ax splits down the middle, a canister shaping in the empty space with tubes attaching onto his armored arm. Plasmatic energies begin forming around his ax as his red eyes meet her green ones.

"It's better to die here than see what she has in mind for us, Cindy." He raises to his feet, pointing at her. "I wouldn't want to be here to witness what would befall us."

Cindy coughs once as she pushes herself to her feet, her avatar returning to hovering over her, mimicking her every movement.

"I'm too tired for this shit anyways." Cindy shrugs before going into a defensive stance. She smirks at him and gives him the bird.

And since Jakob is already high on the anger meter, she anticipated him charging at her like a bull. His plasmatic ax swung back.

Cindy pumps the lever once before swinging it in a high arc, pulling the trigger. Their axes meet in shower of sparks, fire and steel to plasma, they can feel frictional energies growing between the two blades.

* * *

 **On The Other Side**

"Welp, nice knowing you Diane." Jay's back meets Diane's. Their weapons held out in front of them as Saruman and Charon circles them, their drones or scythe poised to cut them down.

Charon swings first, his scythe aimed at Diane, who deflected the quick blow with her claymore. spinning around for Jay to saw Falling Sky across his Charon's chest while Diane redirected the bullets back at the drones with her shield.

"We make a good tag team." Diane comments as ducks under Jay's spinning chainsaw of death as she twirls around the two of them like a tornado. Diane quickly jumps up, shooting a round at Saruman's armored chest at a point blank with a thrust of her sword added to it.

They switch between attacks, exchanging weapons as they do so with their flipps. Like performing as a troupe, they attacked with so complicated movements it left the two men confused and open for their counter attack. It was hard for them to land a hit on either two of the girls as they would alternate defence and offence so perfectly it's hard for them to be wide open for the renegades to land a hit.

Jay is high in the air while Diane swings in a wide arc, gashing Charon across his abdomen. Jay lands on the flat of her blade.

Her eyes are glowing blue as lightning cover Falling Sky. She jumps into the air her weapon raised high over her head. Diane takes the cue to turn and hook her left leg behind Saruman's neck, planted her sword in the ground and toss him towards Charon.

"Now!" Diane shouts, using her momentum to pull her sword out and skid back a few yards- for precaution.

Falling Sky begins screeching it's hymn of death as the twin blades roar to life. Jay lets out a laugh before pulling the trigger descending on the two of them as a ball of lightning. She brings Falling sky down from her overhead hit.

Now they understand why Jay calls her chainsword Falling Sky.

Because she becomes a ball of blue lightning that streaked towards the ground faster than their eyes can follow.

* * *

 **Beacon Docks**

Cindy pants, kneeling on the ground supported by Ripple Corruption over Jakob's still body, which bears a shotgun sized hole in his chest. She felt relief that their ordeal has passed, but saddened that she has just killed her friend that has saved their asses during dangerous missions.

Though, she herself was not unscathed. She had a hand pressed to her bleeding abdomen where the old injury lay, now cut open again by a fragment of Jakob's ax that broke off when they clashed for a final time. She hissed, taking in breaths to calm her racing heart. She can try and move but risk pushing the shard further into her and causing damage or pull it out and risk bleeding to death. Her fingers slipped from the bloodied handle of Mourning Dawn as she slumps over.

Black veins glowed all over her hand and up her arm. She looked up to see a black cloaked woman standing in front of her, her hand open to her. Behind her stands ghostly figures of at least hundred of Imperial Shadows from the past from what she can discern from the armor and weapons and they way they move behind her.

"It's not over yet, child." Her silvery voice is pleasant to hear in the midst of battle. "The event has yet to begin."

She felt… rejuvenated.

* * *

 **On The Other Side**

Before Jay lands on the ground, she turns, finishing by turning the deadly weapon and swinging into a wide arc. Her eyes still glowing a bright blue as she stabs her sword into the ground first.

When she hit's the ground, it cracked under her even though she slowed her descent. The two are still in their electrocuted position like stone. Though she can see black veins growing over them quickly.

She counted down from three in her head.

Diane surrounded herself in her shield as she noticed the veins. There's always the aftermath of Jay when she goes all out.

There was a wet explosion as Diane looks away from the exploding bodies, cringing as she can hear the blood and bits of bone and metal strike her shield.

"Gross." Diane chides Jay the moment she let's down her shield, walking to the now blood covered girl who is nursing a long cut across her abdomen while giving Diane a stupid grin. "You're a bloody idiot."

"Ha ha, very funny…" Jay only shrugs and begins giggling before doubling over and coughing- while giving her a thumbs up.

"Idiot." Diane rolls her eyes with a smile while she sheaths Bleak Dusk on her back and grabs Falling Sky and magnetizing it to her lower back plate. She then slings Jay's arm over her shoulder and keeps her right hand around Jay's waist.

"Don't you have bullet wounds to worry about?" Jay asks her. Diane only shakes her head and continues to walk towards the flame wrought Beacon.

"I can walk it off."

* * *

 **On The Airship**

Emily landed on the flying airship, thanks to Tryygr's larger from (sadly who can't really perch on her arm for too long) who flew back to join the large ice wyvern in his duel with the Grimm.

"Sup Ruby." Emily greeted, her Mocking Reaper shifting into it's bladed from. She notices a very familiar red armor on the side, a large halberd grasped firmly in both hands, just observing the battle between Ruby and her two assailants.

She charged at Gaheris while his side is turned to her, the blade drawn high, the armored man turns around raises his halberd, deflecting it before butting her with the shaft of his weapon. Emily grunts, grabbing the shaft to stabilize herself before she falls off this thing.

"Your skills are nowhere near mines, Emily." Gaheris growls, launching his fist at her. Emily ducks under it, her foot contacting with his face, forcing the Forgemaster to stagger a little. "I am much different than a normal man."

They exchange blows as if they were ballroom dancing with the complicated footwork that would even put the best to shame. Emily would slide under the powerful swings and Mordred would grapple weapons and lock them close enough to see the steam hissing from the vents in his armor.

Though, the pattern broke when Emily pulled his left leg up, sending the Forgemaster onto his back. She stabs Mocking Reaper's blade into the plating of his neck, twisting the blade as it sunk into the flesh under.

"Nah, I think so." Emily rolls her eyes as she jumps over a blow aimed at her legs as the armored hand breaks through the blade. She landed on the flat of the ax mid swing to push herself over the large forgeman as he rolls onto his feet again. She turns mid flip, firing a gun powdered and dust propelled bolt at the chink in his neck. The bolt explodes against the metal as she lands on the surface behind him, sending dust into the air clouding his entire being in the powdery dust.

She hears a loud crash behind her, and turns to see Ruby without her beloved weapons standing against two much powerful opponents.

"Ruby!"

A large hand suddenly burst from the smoke, connecting to her chin in a devastating uppercut from the powered armor warrior. Emily's vision blurred from the blow, her footing disoriented as she steps backward, her head spinning not too long after.

BANG!

Emily pauses halfway, her body jerking forward, making her kneel as her aura glimmers around her faintly before disappearing. Mocking Reaper falling from her grasp and skidding a few feet from her.

"Emily!" She hears Ruby cry before the familiar heavy footsteps come behind her.

Gaheris stands a few yards behind her, one hand gripped on his pistol aimed at her back, the other held the broken blade that was stuck in his neck until now.

Emily

"Who more skilled now, Trent?" He chuckles, tossing the broken blade aside and walks closer to her prone form. He grabs his halberd as he walks closer.

Emily groans as she slowly find her footing on the metal ground, staggering like a drunkard. Her hand reaches for her combat blade stored on her back, holding it in front of her with blurred vision as she stands in front of Ruby.

* * *

 **High On The Hill**

The hills of Beacon are strewn with corpses of the decaying Grimms, humans, faunus, machines and students alike in one giant hill of bodies to the extent that plants of any kind would not grow there for a while. Except there stands two lone figures fighting at the top of the hill of the dead.

Kelly jumped over Leona's dual claws, quite fitting for a lion faunus. Though she finds herself behind smashed into the ground not too long after evading her attack. They stand on a higher point of the hills nearby. With the roar of the battle far behind them, Kelly stares Leona down like a beast, her five draconic heads hovering around her. Meanwhile, Leona's claws glow a golden hue as they circle around one another.

"So, Kiros." Lonea smirks, calling Kelly by her real name. "Crawling back to wanting to be a hero huh?"

"Shut it, Leona you know I am nothing near what everyone want's me to be." Kelly growls, her bayonet blade flipped out. "Or think I am."

The lion scoffed, throwing her wild mane of golden hair back over her shoulders.

"Then why do I hear people calling you one?" Leona presses, bringing the circle closer until they were almost one feet apart.

"For a start, I actually go helping the people who are casted aside with society," Kelly frowned at her, not breaking her concentration on any movement. "And I don't use my status to have one night stands unlike you."

She seemed offended for once. For someone who is prideful as an asshole, it's quite fun to see what she says next. Leona's face grew slightly red at the comment, upon remembering that she has a superior sense of smell than Leona.

Kelly arched an eyebrow, giving Leona one of her trademark smirks.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" She teased before pausing. "Oh, wait, accidental pun not intended."

Whack!

Well, that was worth it.

* * *

 **On The Airship**

"Still kicking, Gaheris." Emily mocks with a pained expression. She can feel Ruby's hand tugging at her tattered cloak. She ignores it as she readies herself for Gaheris.

Gaheris lets out a battle cry before lunging with his extended reach. Emily knocks the blade aside with a well planted block of her blade and jump kicks him in the face again. Gaheris' head snap to the side from the force of the blow, making him disengage from Emily momentarily. Emily takes the chance to thrust her knife into the chink on his abdomen.

"Not this time." A gauntlet smashes against her abdomen, knocking the breath out of her as she lets go of the knife and staggers back.

"I still win." His gravely voice whispers in her ear.

SHUNK!

She feels weightless, before she finds herself sailing through the air. Then pain of unimaginable levels sears her chest. Her breathing feels harder than it should for some reason.

"Emily, no!" Ruby shouts as Emily sails through the air, a large trail of blood following her flight from Gaheris' halberd. Her body smacks against the metal ground, bouncing once before laying still on her back not too far from the red cloaked girl.

Emily's chest heaved heavily as the gray camo she wears turned crimson quickly. There lays a deep gash running across from her left shoulder to her right hip. She tries to get onto her knees, but pauses halfway, coughing heavily. There is the heavy footsteps of the Ex-Imperial Shadows Forgemaster as he walked up to her prone form, kneeling down to her bleeding level. His left hand gripped the broken blade from Mocking Reaper.

His right hand reaches to his helmet, where there is steam hissing from the seal where the material meets the helmet. He removed his helmet, letting them all see his disfigured face, covered in overlapping scars that even Neo cringed as she meets his gold eyes. His lower jaw is replaced with a metal one with tubes sticking here and there. He clips his helmet to his belt.

Those who are watching the event unfold can see Gaheris mouth two words as he raises the broken blade with a coy smirk.

 _Game over._

* * *

 **High On The Hill**

All she needs is to get Leona mad and she would be easy to bring down.

"You…" Leona hissed out, her left claw scoring across the neck guard of Ripple Corruption. Kelly grabs her arm and ducks, skidding on her right knee as she wraps her other arm around her thigh. Moving quick, Kelly drives her head into her side, tugging Leona's legs from under her, sending both of them sprawling to the ground.

"And so I've heard you been with Sera." Kelly adds on as she pins Leona on her back to the muddy ground that has been soiled with blood.

"Yeah, she's pretty cute and good." Leona scored Kelly across the face, though the larger girl did not even flinch from the blow. "I heard she in it with someone, didn't say who thou-."

Except her grip on Leona's left arm grew harder.

" _My_ Sera?" Kelly growled, her right hand clenched harder. She can see Leona visibly gulp.

"That's cute, I always thought you were… " Leona can see the anger on Kelly's face. "Oh. You're serious…"

Keep it cool Kelly. Keep it cool.

Crack!

Kelly is thrown off into the mud from Leona's swipe, cutting her skin on her jaw.

She mentally kicked herself for leaving herself open.

Kelly springs to her feet, hurtling the lion a powerful roundhouse kick to her arm where Kelly almost crushed with a iron grip. She can feel Leona moving slightly from the blow and quickly twisted her body the other way, her foot connecting to her head faster than she can react.

"That's for sleeping with her." Kelly spat, grabbing the arm of her dazed opponent and bringing her over her head and slamming her into the ground. "That's for Beacon and all you have slain."

Leona only roared and lunged at her like a lion, her eyes a dangerous golden glow her claw pinned Ripple Corruption to the ground, digging through the thick metal as her other hand is pressed to Kelly's chest.

She pressed her face close to Kelly and let out a mighty roar.

Boy, does that hurt her ears.

* * *

 **On The Courtyard**

Mordred watches as the white Nevermore suddenly stops his fight with the Dragon Grimm alongside Hazurfurn and just pummels to the ground. His body dissolving into ashes before the bird collides with anything.

Mordred sees someone red moving in the corner of his eyes, making him pause momentarily by plunging his hand through a Paladin's chassis, causing the machine to halt midway and slump over on his arm.

"The vault, Mordred, go hither the Vault!" Argus shouts over the crackle of his lightning bolts. "For her incarnation is imminent!"

He looks over to Argus and tilts his head to the right. Argus nods back before stabbing a traitor in the face with his spear. Mordred looks at the battlefield of students and Grimm, warriors and machines. It was a sight for sore eyes a the sights of his battle brothers and sisters slaughtering one another. But he should not let this deter his iron will in combat. He sees ROCK and the students facing off against multiple large machines- and Mel who is now sailing through the air in a ball of fire.

Mordred throws the Paladin off before running towards the school. Something tells him that this would not end lightly for either side.

"May _Her_ spirit bring us victory." Mordred breaks into a sprint, shoving and ramming anything in his way.

* * *

 **High On The Hill**

Kelly throws Leona off with a gout of fire at her face. As expected, the cat lands on their feet. Leona wasted no time bounding at her again with her claws. She was glowing gold, her claws and hand enveloped in her own energy that extended the reach of her weapons.

She's never seen it in combat other than her lazy use of it to grab the remote. Bringing her arm up, the claws broke the hull of Ripple Corruption before shredding up to her shoulder as chunks of metal dropped to the ground. A piece of metal shears across her unmasked face before Leona follows through with her other claw, puncturing her thickened breastplate.

Leona appeared behind her, turning around to have a smug grin but instead turned to surprise.

"Well…" Kelly looks at her actual arm. All finely crafted metal with a mint green under glow of the plates. It suffered not a scratch from Leona's weapon. "Cat's outta the bag."

Kelly turned around to face her, smirking. Her jaw was metal too, after being revealed by the metal of her weapon ricocheted off her face. Even her teeth is sharp metal as she gives a smirk.

Leona couldn't from words as Kelly walked close, taking in her fear as the body of the Hydra shimmers begin her like a ghost, gaining a physical form with every step, towering over them three times in the area.

Kelly stops as Leona begins moving again.

"I'll make sure to kill the rest of you too." Leona growls before lunging with a roar.

Foolish.

"I'm not Akaia." The five heads lunged forward, one hatching her arm with its poisonous teeth. The second by her leg as the beast pins her to the ground. "I'm not a leader like I was supposed to be."

The third head hovers over her, watching her every movement. While the rest looks at their summoner.

"Tear her apart." Kelly simply says. She turns her back to the dragon she summoned, a part of mind is theirs and a part is hers to control.

And she chooses to let them control themselves. The heads turn to their awaiting prey, acidic saliva melting the ground under them.

The Hydra's heads overpowered the futile screams. While the Grimms deterred around her area.

She can almost taste the copper in her mouth.

She feels disoriented, sick almost.

But she felt satisfied when Leona's screaming ceased.

* * *

 **Beacon Vault**

He opens a black portal in front of him, throwing him from the battlegrounds and into the darker place of the grim vault. He sees a student who he suppose is Juane Arc. Before him stands two pods, his friend Ozpin and-

"Cinder Fall." He growls from his mechanical throat. But further behind her, in one of the pods has a rather large crack in it. And a very familiar arrow protruding from it. Behind the glass sits a very familiar person that is now limp and unresponsive.

"You monster." Mordred growls, raising his warhammer high. He feels rage creeping up his spine, his blue eyes blazing behind the helmet.

He gives a rumbling war cry, charging at the Cinder, Godfeller yelling in his mind, ready to decimate the woman.

"Mordred wait-" Ozpin shouts, before his eyes widened.

Mordred suddenly stops, his legs not responding, or hell, anything below his chest cavity.

 _ **Creak!**_

He feels himself falling, his body twisting before crashing on the ground, Godfeller rolling from his iron grip. The voice of the holy weapon ceases in his mind.

He can't believe it either. He is staring at what is his lower half of his body still planted like a statue on the ground in his charging position, sparks flying from where his is bisected, the metal around it still red and steaming. He can feel his power drain as he turns onto his chest, hand reaching out to his assailant.

How can she, a mere human defeat him like this? How?

He cannot be disgraced like this.

" _G-Gra-k E-Ekk-ar…_ " Mordred attempts to talk before his helmet's vision fades, five words flashes on the blackness.

 _Danger. Commence Stasis. Shutting Down…_

His whole body locks up, hand still reaching towards Cinder in his futile crawling form, the rest of his body locked in the same position before he was cut from the chest down. Godfeller not far from his left hand.

" _Cinder,_ " Gaheris' static voice broke through the silence of the room through a scroll. " _We have broken through the Imperial Shadows, CDTK, HLTP and EBNY are incapacitated._ "

Silence broke through momentarily before his voice comes on again.  
" _Oh, and Emily Trent is dead by my hands on this fine night_."

* * *

 **Somewhere...**

A eerie howl sweeps through Vale like banshees out for souls. A heavy mist covered the city as the sounds of heavy footsteps echoed the now silent streets and fighting paused.

The Grimm halted in confusion, the androids begin malfunctioning, turning here and there before shutting down into a heap on the ground.

A woman in a black cloak is seen on the top of the CCT through the mist, slender hand raised. She has seen her son's defeat through the hands of that _woman_ in the Vault. She is the most displeased about it, her powers called forth the unresting spirits of her revered legion.

The mist falls inches from the ground, revealing hundreds of ghastly figures everywhere. Thier ethereal bodies had gray flames lapping between their joints and eyes and their helmet's mouths. Ghosts rise from the dead Imperial Shadows on the ground, their aura full of seething hate and rage. The androids begin shooting at them, only for the bullets to pass through them harmlessly as they advance towards the dwindling forces on Beacon grounds.

She lowers her hand.

A unified shriek of death echoes through the razed city as the ghosts descended onto the living with weapons that would put fear into every corner of the world.

Like the spirits of the damned.

" _Let me be your salvation tonight_." She whispered through the lips of the ghostly warriors before melting into the shadows without a trace she was actually there.

* * *

 **There is two chapters left before I mark it as the end after following Volume 3.  
**

 **I would do a filler volume before jumping onto Volume 4 with RT!**


	18. 18- No Rest For The Valor

**I AM NOT PREPARED FOR THE FINAL AND THIS IS JUST FOR THE LAUGHS**

 **Let's just say ROCK is still here and they play a role in the story as well.**

* * *

 **Somewhere in Beacon**

"Unhand me you foul wretched being of the apocalypse!" Cyres shouts before casting a pillar of ice around her to throw the Grimm that has tried to drag her into the sea of black. She turns her back to Mel who launches a few of them over the edge with a kick of fire. Mel's personal retuine is scattered through the city and school and Hazurfurn is busy chasing the dragon Grimm.

"It's been like how many years since we've seen a crowd like this?" Mel shouts to her friend, her gauntlets blazing like a hot forge- when it collided with a pack of Beowolves, it dissolved into ashes before the metal even contacted.

"I'm not even going to comment on that." Cyres rolled under a Goliath's foot before jumping to it's face, Icentooth elongating four times it size.

She swings with all her might, the ice blade slicing the Grimm in half without a blink before freezing it into a solid block of ice and then shattering into pieces once Cyres landed on the ground again.

'"Is that Blake and Yang?" Mel's voice makes her look up to see a metal finger pointing to two retreating figures. She can't make out much except one hand bright yellow hair.

"Yep, I'm sure that's her." Cyres stands and Icentooth returns to it's original length. Her eyes focus on one of Yang's bleeding arm before the two vanish from sight.

"I think she's missing an arm though." Cyres comments, spinning around to stab a Griffon in the throat behind Mel.

"I guess you can say she got un **armed** in the fight?" Mel grins at her childishly.

"Mel," Cyres sighs heavily. "Let's not go there."

The two go back to back again when the growling reaches their ears. They find themselves surrounded by a horde of Grimm's of all kinds. Cyres summons her ice shield as Mel ignites her gauntlets once more. THey looked hungrily at the two Huntresses as they circled around them.

"Too much work to tally the kills we made on this fine night." Cyres lowered her weapons as Mel give a loud yawn. The foolish horde lay dead at their feet, whilst they did not endure much injuries beside trivial scratches on their skin and armor.

"Well, I'm not the one to re **tally** ate?" Mel grinned in her face, smiling from ear to ear, her jovial ruby eyes held a sparkle of mischief. She makes finger pistols at Cyres, who justs keep a poker face.

Cyres' eye twitched. She is not amused at all.

Out of all the times, she choses to make a pun. Here, on this moment where they are either going to die falling into the rocks below or make it out alive.

Spikes of ice sprouted within a twelve foot radius around them when her eyes begins glowing a bright icy blue.

"Uhh, gotta go?" Mel looked around before dashing off, using her fire to propel her faster. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"

" **Mel, I swear to Oum that he have mercy on you!** " Cyres' booming semblance of ice echoed as Mel ran faster than she ever did. She can feel the icy chill overpowering her sweltering heat as she passes by Argus.

Because the Ice Queen is just a hair widths away from grabbing her by her coattail.

"I'M SORRY!" Mel cried out as they rounded a corner into a large mass of Grimm.

Needless to say, it involved everything simultaneously turning into ashes and then ice sculptures of the Grimms last second of life before being charred and frozen in their death posture before they can dissolve on the ground.

* * *

 **Lost in the City**

 _Systems Recovering…_

Akaia's vision blinks online once again. Her head hurted like a bitch, and she felt like she has been thrown through the grinder thrice before being spat out.

Akaia shakes off her remaining upper body armor. It was too damaged to function anyways, the thick metal was shredded to the point it became too hazardous to use even for a mechanical body like hers. Her dark gray skin-like fabric is what separated her internal metal muscle and machinery to the world. Even though she is like Mordred, Akaia is a bit more new in terms of her construction being a prototype hence why her body leans towards the male gender. Metal plates adorned her chest and shoulders and parts of her arm, shifting as she takes in unneeded breaths of foul air.

For modesty's sake, she would keep on her lower body armor- partially because it's the least damaged.

She finally take a good look of the mound of bodies she stands on. Piles of undissolved Grimms mingled with humans and the White Fang, it did not look pleasant. If she had a stomach, she would've regulated what she would've eaten for dinner.

She lost communication with everyone else and she has a slight feeling she's deeper in the city.

She can hear shouting from down the street.

"What a fine night to be lost." Akaia mutters, grabbing one of her fallen brethrens drum magazine bolter. She quickly checked the ammunition before reaching to grab a new clip and hastily hand load the remaining before standing.

Leviathan and Behemoth hums within their housing on her arm as she begins running down the broken street, her finger on the trigger.

"Akaia!" A voice calls her from behind. Akaia pauses and turns around to see Qrow behind catching up to her. "What happened to the defensive line?"

"Long story, we got our asses handed to us and we're cut down to half of our combined forces from what I can track." Akaia raises the gun up to her face and pulls the trigger, blowing the head from a Griffon that is all the way across the square, too far for it to notice them. "Where's Ironwood?"

"He's going after his ship to get his robots back-"

The ship!

Akaia turns to face the burning wreckage what seems like a few blocks to her left, fragments of the ship is everywhere, billowing smoke into the night. She has an idea- a stupid one so to speak.

"Perfect, go meet with my brother to evacuate the citizen!" Akaia cut him off before bounding away at high speeds towards the smoking wreckage in the distance leaving a confused Qrow in the middle of the street.

* * *

 **Beacon / Vale Border**

Rio removes Vanquisher from the corpse of a Griffon, effortlessly decapitating a Beowulf behind him without much thought. He and his small command squad has slain plenty during the young hours of the night, and they have no intention of stopping anytime soon until the city is cleansed and the threat is purged. With is flag flying high behind him, he is standing in front of the citizens as they run towards the Thunderhawks to send the people to safety outside the city where it is safer and guarded by their war machines of unrestrained power.

"How do you think Hazurfurn is faring ?" He hears one of his men say as they watch the ice wyvern battle the Grimm for air dominance. The two titans flies around one another, Hazurfurn spewing create swaths of ice towards the dragon, who lunges with it's massive jaws.

It seems like they have the upper hand- until Mel and Cyres streaked by causing everything that is black and white to become statues.

"Mel, I will kill you!" Cyres shouts as she skates across the blazing ground- the fire being quelled instantly and replaced with ice instead.

"I'm SORRY!" Mel shouts back as they round around the corner again- making the unknown area explode in billowing snow.

Rio looks at his men before shrugging.

"I guess our work got cut out for us." He coughs before turning to the city again. "Stay here and guard the area, I'll go into the city to do reconnaissance."

A skull probe hovers next to him before vanishing with his shadow.

* * *

 **Hahahaha, I am so not prepared.  
**

 **Welp, lets turn to heartbreak!**


	19. End of Act I - United

**I was not prepared for the end. Period.**

* * *

 **Behind A Ice Wall**

Cyres and Mel fall behind a ice wall that is placed by Cyres when their original steel walls broke under the fight with the turncoats.

"Mel." Cyres started, making the younger girl pause her firing and turn to her.

"Yeah?" Mel asks, ducking behind the cover again. A explosion sent a chunk of rock over their heads.

Cyres hesitated, which she rarely did. Her hand instantly covered her stomach when another chunk of rock sailed overhead.

"I know this is a really bad time to say this…" She grabbed Mel by the collar of her shirt. "But I can't tell Akaia. I don't want her to worry about me."

"Are you sick?" Mel looked confused, placing a gauntlet hand on the Queen's forehead. Cyres rolled her eyes at her. "You feel ice cold as usual."

"No, you bloody idiot." Cyres gives a small smile before that fell. "I-"

"Are you constipated? Is that why you're holding your tummy?" Mel tilted her head with a child-like smile."

"No-" Cyres started, her eye twitching slightly.

"Are you dizzy? Because you were-"

Cyres gives an annoyed growl and grabs Mel by her shoulders, shutting the girl up instantly. Light blue meets ruby red.

"Mel, for my sanity's sake I am pregnant!"

Mel's jaw dropped and stared at her. It looked hilarious to see Mel's reaction, she looks like a fish out of water with her mouth flopping open and closed.

"Wh-who's kid is it?" Mel seemed to find the muscle to close up her mouth before she swallowed a fly. "A-and ho-how long?"

"Akaia's." Cyres blushes a little. "About four months. And a horribly timing for this to happen."

"And you're not showing?" Mel asked again with a smirk on her face.

"Psh, Scyrian's don't show until the fifth month or halfway into the fourth." Cyres boasted, smiling.

Mel gives a giggle before her mood suddenly shifts from cute to serious in an instant.

"Then why the shit are you fighting?!" Mel waved her arms in the air. "You're carry a baby and you- ugh!"

Mel takes Cyres by the shoulders and presses her face close.

"You can't fight Cyres," Mel whispers harshly at her. A tone so foreign for Cyres to hear her serious. "I can't risk you having a miscarriage since you seem so happy about it."

"What am I supposed to do then?" Cyres whispers back. "Akaia can't find out otherwise she'll go full "Overprotective Dad Mode" on me."

Cyres summons an ice ramp over their heads as a brick strikes the roof and rebounds into a Grimm.

"Rio's gonna do the same too if I tell him, Mel." Cyres reasons. "You're the only one I can tell this and for once in my life. So help me for I ask a irrational, idiotic, demigod like you for advice."

"Well if she's about to get her ass kicked then you should tell her so she go all protective about you and her kid." Mel shrugged. "I've seen enough cartoons to imagine her getting back up instantly and beating the living shit out of everything that would harm you or her baby."

A rather long pregnant pause settles between them.

"I'll be honest that sounds like a good idea." Cyres blinked a few times.

"I wanna see Akaia do that too." Mel admitted.

A explosion rocks them as they peer over the wall to see Akaia and Rio flying into the air by a Goliath stepping in some mines.

"Let's go help them." Cyres sighs, drawing Icentooth.

* * *

 **Inside Vale / Convince Store**

"Cindy!" Jay shouts in a hushed voice as she and Diane hobble over to their leader who is running down the street. The dup is hiding in a broken convenience shop, the rooh has crumbled and the brisk walls are falling apart with glass strewn across the tile floors. Diane casted a small orange plate into the air to catch Cindy's attention. "Over here!"

They make way as they hear the boot flash against broken ground as their leader skid inside and out of the Grimm-infested city. Jay takes one look and hurries off into the store for more bandages.

"You look like shit." Diane drags her partner's battered body behind the wall with them. She quickly notices the bundle in her arms. "What happened to you?"  
"Let's just say I still won and got my ass nearly kicked again." The bloody girl flashes a thumbs up as Diane immediately facepalms, who is very familiar with Cindy's antics when she's by herself.

Diane opened her mouth to promptly chide her fool of a leader.

"You best be joking me, we're in a war zone and you decide to go frolicing in the ruins?!" Diane whisper-shouts to her leader who shifts slightly in her place.

"It was that panther Grimm we couldn't catch three months ago." Cindy shrugs before wincing slightly. "Tis all but a scratch."

"A scratch?! You're bleeding every-" Diane turns away and takes in a deep breath before giving a muffled scream of frustration. She turns back to Cindy and gives her a small smile. "At least your still alive. Though, what happened to the panther? Did you ki-"

"I'm back." Jay's voice came as the crazy girl slides up to the duo with a bundle of bandages and cleaning a half bottle of what seems like alcohol in her arm. She literally shoved Diane away, making the older girl do a back roll onto her face. "Sorry Diane."

"No problem." Diane gives her a thumbs up before pushing to her feet again. Jay turns back to Cindy and instantly cringes.

"Is it that bad?" Cindy asks, giggling and then lightly punching the young girl on her shoulder.

"Yep." Jay blinks before placing her arms contents down and sucks a breath through her teeth. She then unzips the once orange tracksuit. "This might sting a bit… "

Cindy scoffs.

"Probably not as bad when Kelly had to amputate her arm herself without anything."

* * *

 **Beacon Hill**

It reeked of death and decay.

That is the first thing Kelly smells when she is pulled back into the realm of consciousness. Her body ached, that's a sure sign she is not dead yet. She shivered at the wet feeling on her back from the blood and what not that soaked the hill. Shaking her head clear, she pushes herself onto her feet, groggily standing on the mushy ground. Her heart sinks when she sees Ripple Corruptions shattered form on the ground, there's no way to salvage it in any way, shape or form. Only the hand remained on her, the rest is… well, everywhere.

"You have served me well." She whispered.

She also has no idea where her haori went and it felt a bit chilly. She also discarded her broken cuirass, leaving her tassets on instead. At least she was smart enough to wear a thermoclad tank top under her scarred blue shirt before she left Beacon.

She looks at the greenish hued sky, then at the school not too far from her. There were fire and hell everywhere. Citizens are screaming as they try to escape the White Fang or the Grimm while the unfortunate are torn apart by the latter. She can see children crying in the streets, the elderly scrambling to safety of the Hunters. Her feet collides with a piece of squishy bone.

"Damn, what a mess I made." She comments at the mangled remains in front of her feet. She can still taste the copper in her mouth as she turns away.

She pulled out her scroll to see if she can call her teammates. Only to find it cracked and not even working anymore, she reattached it to her arm slot. She can see the apparitions of the armored warriors running through the streets, cleansing it of Grimm or anyone that opposes them beside Beacon students Hunters and Huntresses. What catches her eye is a banner that has partially fallen, tilted on the muddy ground. She walks over and grabs the fallen banner and walks to the top of the hill. With all her might, she stabbed it into the ground, letting the colours fly high once again.

A hollow victory for them.

She turns and begins her walk down the hill to the city.

They could've prevented all this mess. They were to protect the citizens of the world- human or Faunus. They were supposed to keep things safe.

And now this mess is the punishment that could've been prevented if they were not busy with their personal investigations.

* * *

 **At Beacon**

"Kelly!" Jay shouts over to the larger girl who is jogging onto the school grounds. The familiar green eyes locked to hers. "We're here!"

Kelly takes no time to wait as she sprints over to them, and Jay taking her in a instant hug.

"Is everyone okay?" Kelly asks, looking around the area for the other two. Jay nods.

"Diane is carrying CIndy and you know her, she's fine." Jay reassures Kelly by giving her metal arm a punch. "We call her The Undying for a reason."

Kelly only gives a huff before noticing two people turning the corner.

"There they are!" Jay squeaks happily, drawing them all into a hug. "We're all alive!"

Kelly clears her throat.

"Actually, we're the only team that is still with four people."

"What do you mean by that?" Cindy asks as they break up from the hug.

"I saw Qrow picking up Emily on my way back, he shook his head at me." Kelly started. "She's dead. Qrow drew a line over his neck before shooing me away."

"Who killed her?" Cindy asks Kelly, she did not believe that her childhood friend is dead.

"I saw Gaheris standing on one of the buildings next to the fallen Atlesian ship before turning and disappearing." Kelly explains, gently grabbing CIndy's shoulder before the girl can collapse in tears. Heck, she's tearing up right now. "He was charred and had cracked all over. I could briefly smell the dust rounds Emily uses."

"I'll kill that bastard." Cindy growls, but it slowly turns to hiccups and shudders as Kelly pulls her into an embrace.

"You can do that later, Cindy." Diane wrap her arms around both of them. "We have to focus on finishing what she started here."

Kelly winces at the hard grip on her flesh arm as the wetness grows on her chest.

"Emily wouldn't want you to cry now," Jay takes all three of them in a bone crushing hug and no one complained. "Use all your emotions as your advantage now."

Cindy slowly stops shaking in their embrace, reducing to sniffles when her breathing steadys. She gently pushes them away, wiping her tears with her stained jacket.

"Y-you're right." Cindy sucks in a deep breath. Her fist clenches around Mourning Dawn as she sniffles one last time, looking at each and every one of them with puffy eyes. "She wouldn't… "

"We can grieve later, Qrow sent me a message for us to meet with ROCK to help do a final push." Kelly announces.

* * *

 **At Beacon**

"Ruby, Weiss!" Mel shouts to the two as she bandages Yang's stump. "Less lollygagging and get your ass moving! Time is precious now!"

"But we have to get Jaune and Pyrrha-" Weiss starts before Mel shouts again, heaving Yang over her shoulders despite the fact Mel is pretty much a dwarf compared to everyone else.

"Go! You can't let the tower fall!"

ROCK, CTDK and _BNY has formally gathered again on Beacon, with their remaining men and Argus securing the ground and air. Argus and the Shadow Reavers are ferociously guarding the remains of Mordred who was recovered by his personal guards. The legion is reduced to nothing more than three hundred in total, now condensed in this courtyard where they continue to mow down any attackers and fleers without fail.

Many of Gaheris' men remain loyal to them while the rest are non-existent now as they lay dead on the stone ground.

They stand behind two steel and ice reinforced six foot wall that separated them and the Grimms not too far.

Hazurfun is lying on one of the buildings, his neck bleeding from the talons of the Grimm slashing across his throat. Surprisingly he bleeds bioluminescent blood instead of blue or red blood. The Dragon Grimm is now flying around the CCT, clearly wounded by the much older dragon with long gashes through the tough hide and bite marks on it's black neck from Hazurfurn's massive fangs.

"We don't have much time." Argus shouts, sending a ball of white fire through the oncoming Grimm. "We can't let the tower fall!"

He turns to Akaia and Rio and nods.

"Everyone get back behind the Aegis!" Cyres and Mel shouts towards the students and Hunters. Without much of a hesitation, the small group manages to jump over the thick walls as the ice melts to leave the steel wall at only five feet tall.

"Let's go, Rio." Akaia and Rio both reappeared over the metal walls, setting them between the enemy that their face and the students behind them. "You first, brother."

Rio walked forward a few steps, and raised his hand before it started glowing white and the visor of his helmet the same.

And the students get a glimpse of their otherworldly semblances.

Anything not cement or bolted down to the ground is lifted a hundred feet into the air. The Grimm roared and screeched in futile as the Griffons and Nevermores tried to gain balance in the gravity-nullified air.

Cyres' ice began sprouting from the ground, creating ice spikes that is as tall as a one story house. Her eyes glowing blue while the ice morphed with every flick of her hand. She is breathing out frost as she dons her helmet again.

Mel is on fire, her body ignited with enough heat make the fountain ten yards from her slowly evaporate. Wings of fire sprouted from her back as she hovered in the air. She grasped a long sword of fire in her hands.

Argus waves his spear in the air, signaling all the Imperial Shadow units to pull out of the attack, even the war machines. They slowly walk back, their fire ceasing, leaving Cyres and Mel standing behind the first partial wall.

"Now!" Argus shouts to Akaia.

Akaia walked forward, gray fire spewing from her mouth and hands. The air grew heavy with each of her step.

"Let's end this." Akaia growled. She reaches out with her hand. The buildings around them and across the road began cracking and groaning, even some condensing into itself.

The warriors around them all drew their daggers and swords, their guns cocked and raised.

The special teams look around as Akaia flared her semblance.

The ground shatters and building flattened as Akaia clenched her fist. The Grimm cried before being impaled on the ice under. Then they were flattened into nothing more than a black and white pancake on the ground. Even the Deathstalker was crushed into nothing under Akaia's harsh power.

Although what happened behind the impaled Grimm is not what anyone wants to see. A massive horde of Grimm from the pits of Hell decides to manifest behind the impaled bunch- just down the road.

"Prepare offensive position." Argus calls out They all stand at ready.

Cyres and Mel joined them in the front. They can feel their hearts hammer in their ear as the rumbling grew closer.

 **Boom!**

Their focus shifts when a loud explosion wracks the ground as the top of the tower exploded, sending chunks of stone into the courtyard.

"Shit!" Mel swears, sending a swath of fire into the air to burn the oncoming rocks into nothing but ashes. "This is bad."

They grow closer and Cindy looks around uncertain that they would live through this. Even Kelly, the braver of the lot seemed a bit scared as the horde grew closer to them. Heck, they are all nervous

But to see such a inspiring aura coming from ROCK, and their banner still fly tall, Cindy finds herself standing in the front next to Cyres' confident from. They met eyes briefly before a metal hand clause on her shoulder.

"We're here." Kelly gives a mismatched smile. To her left, everyone stands together in a line. They looked slightly confident and ready to take them head on with the rest of the students that have joined them.

"Hey, Emily wouldn't want us to give in." Ying smiles at her. "She would want us to give our best of the best because we failed to keep the citizens safe like our pledge said we would."

 ** _There's a place where we'll stand outnumbered_**

 ** _where the wolves and the soul-less will rise_**

 ** _in the time of our final moments_**

 ** _every dream dies_**

"Steady." Akaia commanded, the remaining army bubbling behind them. She looks to CTDK, the four girls readying their weapons with the remains of _BNY. Such young spirits staring death in the face with as much ferociousness as their own hardened warriors of age. She looks back to the Grimm as the ground begins rumbling under their thunderous steps.

 ** _There's a moment we make a decision_**

 ** _not to cower and crash to the ground_**

 ** _the moment we face our worst demons_**

 ** _our courage found_**

They can feel their hearts hammering in their mind like the Newton's Cradle. It is a lot of Grimm to be even fighting. Jay is vibrating in her place, her chainsword revving like crazy as they grew near.

"Steady." Akaia's voice raises slightly.

 _Rumble._

A brilliant white glow in the shape of wings sprout from the top.

 ** _When we stand with friends_**

 ** _and we won't retreat_**

 ** _as we stare down death_**

 ** _then the taste is sweet_**

 ** _I may fall_**

A scream that echoes like a banshee.

And they run down the street, colliding with the Grimm.

And everything is bathed in white.


	20. Epilogue- Untraveled Road

**Somewhere Far Away**

"Hanna, Lily, Tam and Penelope fought till the end, the last of the renegades were dead around them." Qrow offered Cindy a glass of beer, who just accepts it without much of an issue. "When I found them after the white light, they already bled out, but their hands still gripped tightly around the flying flag of the Patrol. I couldn't even get their hands off it, they held onto it like stone. A death grip."

He takes a swing of the flask.

"Hell, they died with a smile of victory." He grimaced as if remembering something. He looked at the leader of CTDK, whose eyes were tearing up at the thought.

"How did Emily's parent take the news?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"They knew what happened once I showed them her broken weapon. I said she died trying to take down a warlord." Qrow looked out the window at the island in the distance. "She died a valiant death… "

Cindy sniffles again.

"She didn't like to be a main hero in the books." Cindy gripped her cup. "She wanted to be the hero that is always in the shadow, the sidekick."

Cindy remembers all the times of their childhood playing pretend in the creek by their house. Going into the forest until night where they would camp out and watch Grimm migrations. The time they both got into Beacon.

And the time they were both chosen into the R.F.P. Where Emily would cover them during a dangerous infiltration mission with her sniper team as Cindy and hers storm into the building.

And the last time they laughed together.

"So any news from Argus or Vale?" Cindy asks Qrow, wiping her eyes.

"Vale is under military occupation by Mordred, and the city looks like a horror movie. They're there until things go back to normal in communications is established." Qrow takes a swing from his flask. "ROCK is back on Altimar, Mordred is almost fixed and is awake in Vale."

"Oh." Cindy sighs and takes a long drink. "So enough of me, how is Ruby and Yang?"

"Scarred is the right word now." He mumbles. "But safe. Yang's needs to get used to things again. And Ruby… She's… she'll be fine They're strong."

"She's special alright." Cindy looks at the mid-day sun. "Any word of ROCK? They disappeared after the base was established."

He hummed and leaned back into his chair.

"Well there's good news from them." Qrow smiles a little.

"Cyres is four months pregnant with Akaia's child." Cindy nearly spat out her drink. "They're happy about it too. They're expecting a girl in a month."

"She is?!" Cindy coughed a few times. "Didn't she fight Cinder and hordes of Grimms in one night?!"

"She's one hardcore woman." Qrow chuckles before his mood became serious again. "Cindy, I need you to listen."

"Right now, something is set into motion. The Remnant Frontier Patrol no longer exists and there are three factions at play for their own goals. Us, trying to undermine the plan before a world war starts. Mordred, who is shadier than Ironwood about his plan and possibly wants us out of the way. But either way, he wants to find Ozpin as well and has our back." He clasps his hand on Cindy's shoulder. "The rest of EBNY is in shambles, they're going to need time before going off the grid. But you and your team have a choice: go big, go home, or go missing. Either way, there will be many more sacrifices before this is all over."

"Which road do you take?"

* * *

 **Vale**

In Vale, the Imperial Shadows are taking occupation of the desolate and grim city. They have set up a forward base in the west side of the city. Dozens of otherworldly ships are spotted hovering over the city where the Atlesian military once did. The sky is painted in swirls of white and pink as strange things seem to fall from the sky every while. Great buildings and tents were set up as their dwindling army grew slowly. The armored warriors would take in and guard the citizens that were left behind by evacuations.

No one knows who to fear, the Imperial Shadows marching down the streets or the hellish sights in the sky as their ships would come and go.

But one thing they do appreciate is them aiding the rebuilding process. Argus is seen repairing buildings and roads with Glynda occasionally, speeding up the process of rebuilding slightly. And his men would help find any missing people in the rubble of the city with the local Huntsmen.

Led by Argus, he is currently overseeing the entire city while trying to figure out a way to remove the Dragon from the remains of the CCT.

Mordred is partially moving about, tended in their base camp, he would oversee the process of rebuilding his legion to a working force while taking care of the city.

ROCK, or rather Akaia is would venture not too far from the base after Cyres' announcement to her. But Cyres would occasionally venture out to clear out the Grimm and create walls of hardened ice around settlements with Mel. As expected, Akaia became a bit protective of Cyres

* * *

 **-Unknown-**

Gaheris marches up the steps of the jagged stairs of the otherworldly domain of hers. His rusty red armor is charred and cracked from the explosion that little red girl kicked him into the ship's motor and it still barred scratches and scuffs from the duel with Emily Trent. His halberd is stained with dripping blood of his last victim. His mechanical arms folded on his back as his lens glowed as if they are on fire.

His footsteps clanked against the jagged steps as he reached top. He faces the back a woman with white hair styled in a way that seemed impossible and dressed in a black robe that covered her body.

He cleared his throat to give his presence.

"I did what you commanded, Salem. What is my next move?"

* * *

 **Aaaand that's a wrap for this volume!**

 **Stayed tune for possible filler chapters and Volume 4!**


End file.
